Political Quotes

“I appreciate the solicitude and care with which the gentleman from Texas has helped me get attention. I would appreciate even more, however, some solicitude for the ability of the House to legislate in a sensible way. The Committee on Appropriations members will be put to the problematic task of sitting in full committee while they are in fact having bills on the floor. The Committee on the Judiciary has now called a markup on the very sensitive subject of abortion, and members of the Committee on the Judiciary will be asked to be at that full committee while there is legislation on the floor. It is a very clear example. Politicians who have been caught being inconsistent like to misquote Ralph Waldo Emerson, they leave out a couple of adjectives, about how consistency is for the small-minded. I want to congratulate my colleagues on the other side. They must feel large-minded indeed these days, because there is scarcely a principle which they brought forward on the opening day of the session which they have not violated, as the gentleman from Texas has said, routinely.”