Political Quotes

“I thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), Speaker of the House, for her remarks. I know Elijah felt very strongly about her and his support of her and her leadership and how proud he was that she was from the city of Baltimore that he loved so greatly. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. McCarthy), my friend, the minority leader, and another good friend of Elijah's. Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding. I thank him for his words, and I thank the Speaker. We lost more than just a Member of Congress when we lost Elijah Cummings. As the Speaker spoke of his life, she talked about him bringing calmness. I want you to reflect for one moment, when have you ever served in this body that we have been this calm and this quiet and this reflective? Elijah's work is still good with us right now. Chairman Cummings had enormous presence. As many times he would be an adversary, he was a respected adversary because he was tough. He had such a presence on this side of the aisle and an impression that, when we would sit inside our steering committee--and maybe I am breaking the rule; we are never supposed to talk about what we say in there. When we would select a chair or a ranking member, this is the one committee we weighed who we went against. And every time we spoke of selecting an individual who can rise to the occasion, to be in debate with him, we would look for somebody who was strong.…”