Political Quotes

“First of all, I thank the Senator for bringing Representative Carter's comments to my attention. I absolutely agree with the Senator's analysis and also with the comments by Representative Carter. We should have a sense of urgency in passing the Homeland Security bill. The terrorists and the bad guys--whether they are organized crime trying to get across our borders, whether they are the terrorists watching us--they are saying: Hey, they are so busy fighting each other, they don't have time to think about fighting us. They are watching us and laughing at us because while we squabble and quibble and dribble, they are out there plotting against us. I say to the ranking member of the subcommittee, I do think there is a sense of urgency. I also wish to comment on the House. When we were working in the closing hours on the actual money part of the bill, I found remarkable bipartisan consensus. Left to our own analysis about how to be wise stewards of the taxpayer dollars for important security investments, there was wide bipartisan agreement. There may have been a different priority here or there, but by and large we knew exactly which public investments to make. And you know what--we did it within the caps, we did it within the allocation, and we got the job done. We could do this job this afternoon. I feel a great sense of urgency because while the bad guys are plotting against us, we are busy plotting how we can fight each other.”