Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I probably have known Tom for the least length of time of anybody in this Chamber, and I want to offer some comments from the perspective of only 2 years and really more like a year and a half since we became friends and colleagues. I have seen Senator Coburn in two contexts--one is intelligence and the other is faith. He and I serve on the Intelligence Committee. We sit directly across from each other. That committee is generally a non partisan one, but it is also one where all the meetings generally are closed. There is no press. You can really take the measure of someone when they ask questions and participate in a debate in that forum. His questions always struck me as the questions I wished I had asked, and they struck me as the questions I am sure the people of America would have wanted asked. They were penetrating, they cut through obfuscation, and they were always meaningful and helped us move toward the important work that committee has to accomplish. I have also become acquainted with him through our faith and participation in the Wednesday Prayer Breakfasts, and more recently, for reasons that I am not entirely sure, he has invited me to join him on Tuesday evenings for dinners on the other side of the Capitol that have been very meaningful. For the 9 years before I came here, I taught a course called ``Leaders and Leadership,'' and I taught it at a couple of colleges in Maine.…”