Political Quotes

“Thank you, Dean Young. We are going to check that record. I know I am glad I never went up against you, although you have taken a few of us to the woodshed. Madam Speaker, keeping with the bipartisan tradition, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. McNerney), our friend on the Energy and Commerce Committee. Mr. McNERNEY. Madam Speaker, I thank the whip for the opportunity to say some words here. Madam Speaker, my first impression of John was pretty scary. It was my first day on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and John was in the top dais, and I was down in front, a little freshman. John looked down on us and said: Your policies in the Democratic Party are going to cost you your seat. I looked back. ``Oh, geez, I hope he is not looking at me.'' He was, but we got over it. It is funny, when the climate change issue came up, John had a standard practice. He would bring out this big picture of his coal mine workers, and say: You guys, climate policy is going to cost these people their jobs. That is a hard argument to fight against. That is a hard argument because you know he is fighting for his people. I know there are other people here who are shaking their heads on that one, but I respected that. He was fighting for the people he cared about and the people he represented. But there were some things John and I had in common. We both played paddleball, and we were pretty evenly matched, so we got some good games in there.…”