Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise today in one sense as a former Governor. In looking at nominations of Cabinet members by the Executive, I start with a position of deference to the Executive because I think he or she should be able to choose the people who surround them and give them advice. I understand that. I did that as a Governor, and I understand that principle. Indeed, in the proceedings before this body thus far, I think I voted for 7 or 8 or perhaps 10 of the nominees for Cabinet members who advise the President. But today we are considering a nominee who is hostile to the fundamental purpose of the Agency to which he is being appointed. We are appointing a person to be the head of an Agency that is called the Environmental Protection Agency. All you need to know about the mission of that Agency is contained in the name, the Environmental Protection Agency, and we are considering a nominee who has no record that I have been able to discover of protection of the environment. None. Zero. No history of actions on behalf of the environment, on behalf of the health and welfare and well-being of the citizens of his State or of the United States. It is bizarre, to me, to be appointing people to an office where they are hostile to the mission of the office to which they are being appointed. In fact, not only has he no record of positive environment activity, his record is completely to the contrary where he has opposed activities of the Environmental Protection Agency.…”