Bob Dole: “That is why you are seldom asked to be an after dinner speaker. [Laughter.] Mr. President, I think sometimes around here…”

“That is why you are seldom asked to be an after dinner speaker. [Laughter.] Mr. President, I think sometimes around here we think we have to have everything. "We have to have total victory. I will not settle for less. It has to be my way, or no way." Well, Ronald Reagan said once, "If I can get 90 percent of what I want, I would call that a pretty good deal." Ninety percent is not bad. You can get the other 10 percent later. It is a small amendment then. [Laughter.] Better understand that--take the 90 and then work on the 10. I want to say, too, that I read that my resignation and my decision to leave caused astonishment in some quarters, and I do not begrudge anyone their surprise. But I would just want to disabuse anybody about the Senate. This is the great opportunity, and there are hundreds and hundreds and thousands and thousands of people who would give anything they had to be a Member of this body. That is the way it should be. It is very competitive. So I have said the truth is that I would no more distance myself from the Senate than I would from the United States itself. This is a body that is the reflection of America. It is what America is all about. We come from different States and different backgrounds with different opportunities and different challenges in our lives. And, yes, the institution has its imperfections and occasional inefficiencies. We are like America; we are still a work in progress in the U.S. Senate.”