Political Quotes

“The gentleman has a different concept of negotiating than I do. If somebody takes somebody that I care about hostage and says now I want to negotiate with you, it is not a negotiation. That is a demand. That is a ``if you don't do it, I am going to harm people.'' When you said the President of the United States said: This is the last time I am going to open up government, I am going to sign an almost overwhelmingly supported piece of legislation by Republicans and Democrats--George Bush never did that. I don't ever remember Ronald Reagan doing that or George H.W. Bush doing that or Bill Clinton doing that. They did it when it was a close vote, but not when it was overwhelming that we ought to open up the government. As long as hostages are held by your opponent, you are not negotiating. You are subject to being demanded, ``Do what I say.'' That is not the democratic process, and it is harming, literally, millions, tens of millions of people in the process in order to get his way. I have not seen that before. The other two shutdowns were legislative shutdowns. There is no doubt this is an executive shutdown, and you just said it: I will never sign something like this again unless it gives me what I want. Frankly, that is what we saw in the negotiations over the 3 days we were there. The last day, of course, was about a 10-minute day because the President stomped out. Mr.…”