Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman. I rise, first, to salute the gentleman from Florida and to express to him my affection and respect and good wishes as he leaves the Congress, and also to my good friend, the chairman of the committee, Mr. Upton. I would observe, however, if anybody were to put a monument like this to me, I would bend this cane of mine over his head. This is perhaps one of the sorriest things I have seen done. It is like the mule: it has neither pride of parentage nor hope of posterity. It isn't going anywhere. It accomplishes precisely nothing. It has a series of findings which are totally unrelated to facts and don't mean anything and don't help us with the problems before us. It is a piece of legislation which was adopted by this Congress with the full support of all of my Republican friends over there who are now shying away from their parentage of the basic legislation. I say to my Luddite friends: This is not going to accomplish anything. I would point out to you it isn't going to pass the Senate. It isn't going to be signed by the President. It doesn't address any of the problems that are before us. It grandfathers everybody in and says there will be nothing new. But what does it really do? It hurts our efforts to see to it that we are able to remain competitive in high-tech, new energy undertakings, which are the hope and the future of this country. That's what it does. That's why, if I were on that side of the aisle, I would have a red face.…”