Political Quotes

“I thank the Speaker for his efforts, but it has been my experience that when people do not want to hear something, you cannot make them listen. The Republicans do not want to hear the reminders of how short-lived their promises were about running the House. This is an example. They made a big deal about how they were changing its rules so we would not have that conflict between committee business in the House, and it is now routine to change it. When that is changed, of course, they make a mockery of the rule on proxies. We were told you cannot have proxy voting; be there in committee. But what do you do when a bill that you are seriously interested in is being debated on the floor and the committee on which you are a member is simultaneously meeting? Maybe it is a bill on which that committee has jurisdiction. How do you avoid missing one or the other? So what we have had is, at least in the committees I have seen, a very creative contest by the chairs of the committee on how to get around the proxy rule. Let's roll the votes. Let's hold the votes. Let's reconsider. Let's have some mock votes. In area after area, we have seen the rules disregarded. We were told we would have a strict limit on the number of subcommittees a member can be on. We are. Members are strictly limited on the Republican side to the number of subcommittees on which they wish to serve and no more. And that need bear no relationship to the basic rule.”