I was going to ask the minority leader, Mitch McConnell, who just insulted many of us by saying we don't care about small business or the economy, and as the chair of the Small Business Committee, I was going to ask him this: Since President Obama has been in such good faith in the last couple of days negotiating this package with him, my question was, does he regret saying on national television that his No. 1, primary goal is to unseat the President? I was going to ask him how he felt about that. That is a tough place to start a negotiation, which is why some of us are interested in how these negotiations might be going with that as a starting point. But he ran off the floor and did not answer that question. I am going to continue to ask it. Thank you. Let me just add that I do not agree with every policy of the President. Obviously, I am in a major fight over offshore oil and gas. But it is very interesting to us who have been in negotiations for quite some time on many important issues, how you start with saying: My goal is to defeat you, but here is the package we want you to accept. Some of us are having a hard time with that kind of negotiation.
On the recordDecember 4, 2010
Editor's note · Context
The speaker addresses the challenges of negotiating with a leader who openly states a goal to unseat the President.
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