Political Quotes

“it's not without irony that just this past week Congressman Joe Crowley and I, representing the House, and Senators Feinstein and McConnell, representing the Senate, the other body, were at the White House for the signing of the bill that awarded the Congressional gold medal to Aung San Suu Kyi, and it was a very interesting moment there. The First Lady joined the President at the bill signing, which was quite unusual. And the First Lady, the day before, had actually conducted a press conference, which is quite unusual for her, talking about the untold suffering that is occurring in this country. And while we discussed the issue, it was apparent the intensity with which the President and the First Lady, and indeed the entire Nation is viewing the impact of the fact that the junta in Burma simply would not allow humanitarian aid to flow into that country. And so at the time, when we honor somebody with the Congressional Gold Medal, somebody who represents a bulwark of freedom and democracy, the country gets hit with this horrible tragedy. Our purpose here today is simply to encourage the junta to follow the humanitarian strain which is written in the soul of every individual, and that is to set aside the politics, to allow the American aid that is available and, indeed, world aid that is available, in order to alleviate the suffering.”