Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I note that we are going to have some discussions between the leaders about the agenda coming up. I would like to take a few minutes to make it perfectly clear that I think one of the first steps we need to take to assure voters that we have heard the message and that I myself have heard that message is to get our work done on the floor of the Senate. I am a centrist. I am a proud centrist. The record expresses that I am a centrist. As I have said a thousand times on the floor and 10,000 times at home, I have been part of the coalition that has helped make this place work when it did, and I have been part of the coalition that has tried to make this place work even when it didn't. The record is clear. I don't have to say more about that. But yesterday when I arrived in Washington thinking that it would be a very good time to begin our work and came to the Senate floor, I was actually very surprised that neither leader on either side--neither Harry Reid nor Mitch McConnell--was prepared to move us to a vote that is so obvious that we should do and has been obvious for a long time, and that vote is on the Keystone Pipeline. As chair of the energy committee, I moved this out of my committee months ago--I said I would, and I did--and worked every day that I could to get this vote up on the Senate floor. I wish to submit for the Record and talk for a few minutes about it because I came here at 2:00 yesterday--it has been 24 hours.…”