Political Quotes

“representing Louisiana in the Senate, along with my colleague, Senator Landrieu, you can image I have been focused exclusively on the ongoing oilspill, the leak, the ongoing flow that we and the country are battling. Because it has been almost a week since I have been in Washington and on the Senate floor, I wish to use the opportunity to briefly give an update from my perspective. Along with many other officials, industry folks, interested citizens, I have been all through and up and down the coast as well as offshore. I had the pleasure of traveling with several Cabinet Secretaries and other Members of our congressional delegation last Friday, going offshore to look at the site of the former rig, the site of the ongoing spill or leak, very closely. I also took another helicopter tour later that day. I have been in all the effected coastal communities, St. Bernard Parish, Plaquemines Parish, which encompasses the mouth of the Mississippi River and beyond, lower Jefferson. I reached out to folks daily--local elected officials and leaders, the industry, Federal agencies, the Coast Guard and others working on this ongoing crisis and the Governor in the State--who were extremely proactively engaged. Having done that, again, I wish to give a brief report to my colleagues and my fellow citizens. Obviously, I think we need to start in remembering that this is a great human tragedy and that started with the apparent loss of 11 lives.…”