Political Quotes

“I rise for a few moments to compliment my colleague, the chair of the Energy and Natural Resources committee, along with her ranking member, Joe Manchin, who spoke a few minutes ago, the Senator from West Virginia. I have done a lot of thinking about leadership. One of the observations I have made is that the character and personality and thoughtfulness of the leader infect the entire organization. In this case, the chair and the ranking member of our committee have produced one of the most remarkable records of achievement in a committee that I have seen since I have been here over the past year. It has been because of their willingness to listen, their willingness to work with all of the members of the committee--and it is quite a diverse committee in terms of geography and in terms of ideology and in terms of representation of various interests at the table of the important questions of energy that face us. This has been an amazingly productive year. I attribute that to the skill and leadership and character of Senator Murkowski of Alaska and of Senator Manchin of West Virginia. It has been a wonderful experience for me to see what can be done in this institution. The next step, of course, is to get to the floor of the U.S. Senate and move these bills forward, as I think they can and should, through the House of Representatives and to the President.…”