Political Quotes

“Mr. President, let me thank Senator Leahy for his comments. Ten years ago, I was privileged to be elected by the people of Maryland to represent them in the U.S. Senate. I came to the Senate with Senator Brown at that time. It was our first year. Senator Brown had the opportunity to serve on the Banking Committee. I had the opportunity to serve on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Today I hold the position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Senator Lugar held when I first went on the committee; that is, the ranking member of the committee. I remember one of the very first hearings we had in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on resource, curse or blessing. It was a matter of concern to every single member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democrats and Republicans. We saw the faces of people from nations in Africa who had a resource wealth, but they had the resource curse. The people were living in horrible poverty. Yet the country had mineral wealth--gas and oil--that was being exploited but not for the benefit of the people. It was being used to obtain income for their leaders to funnel corrupt practices. Senator Lugar, in October of 2008, authored a committee report of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee entitled ``The Petroleum And Poverty Paradox: Assessing U.S.…”