Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I think the Senator from Florida has it exactly right. This is about checks and balances, it is about the coequal branches of government, and it is about how we limit usurpation of power by checking and balancing each of the different powers. So when Montesquieu wrote that there can be no liberty when you combine the executive and the legislative, they were separated for a reason. When the Constitution says Congress declares war not the President, it was separated for a reason. So when we look forward to these things--and the Senator from Kansas brought this up earlier--when the President says, I have the ability to determine when you are in session or not and I can do recess appointments when I think you are out of session, that is a great usurpation of power to one branch and we should fight it as an institution, Republican and Democrat, and not make these partisan issues. So I agree with the Senator from Florida. I believe there is a need for those checks and balances. By the body not struggling to get as much information as they can--not even in this case as much about the individual as about the policy--then I think it is a mistake for the body not to. I agree with the Senator from Florida completely. It is something that should be defended. It is not something to be derided as partisan because I don't see it as partisan at all. I see it as a defense of the separation of powers and of the checks and balances.…”