Political Quotes

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. I want to thank the ranking member of our full committee, Mr. Mica, and Mr. Duncan. Both of them made some very good points that I would just like to elaborate on a little bit. I call our Coast Guard our thin blue line at sea, and I think when we saw the oil spill situation, we realized that they are indeed our coast guard, they are guarding our coast. And Mr. Mica was absolutely right. I think that sometimes those that are performing some of the most important tasks are occasionally unseen, unnoticed, unappreciated and unapplauded, in the words of a Greek theologian, but they do the most important things. And this is a wake-up call, I think, to our Nation, when we see something like our oil spill, of how important the Coast Guard Academy is in training young folks to go out there and be leaders. But it is also a lesson to our Nation to give the United States Coast Guard the priority status that it gives the other armed service entities. It is very, very important. I know that as I travel around the country, every time I go into a port where the Coast Guard is stationed, I try to spend some time with them to let them know what a grateful Nation we are for what they do every day. But one of the things, Madam Speaker, that has always impressed me in a lot of the ceremonies that I've gone to where they were giving medals is how these men and women put their lives on the line and put their lives before others to save lives.…”