Political Quotes

“Thank you, Connie. Now, Pete wrote this talk, and so I want to ad lib a little bit and say that, well, first of all, because it mentions my book, and I didn't put that in there. But I had the opportunity very recently to give a speech at Bradley University, and I was so proud to start out my talk by saying how honored I was to be in the home of Bob Michel and Ray LaHood. And it just meant so much to me to be able to share that with them. One quick comment to pick up on what Steny had said. One of the things I mentioned in my book is that every place you go to hear a speech, there's a lectern, except in this place, where there's a separate lectern for Republicans and Democrats. So I would paraphrase Ronald Reagan about tearing down this wall. Let's have one lectern, instead of dividing us into separate teams. Everything we do at the Former Members Association is done in a bipartisan manner. Our leadership is comprised equally of Republicans and Democrats, our delegations are led by bipartisan teams of former Members of Congress, and our projects involve both Republicans and Democrats equally. We truly are a bipartisan organization where Members from across the political aisle come together for a common purpose. We have found that, for a number of reasons, this type of bipartisan interaction has become more and more difficult for current Members, which is a great concern, I know, to every one of us.…”