Political Quotes

“Thank you so much. And I rise with so many to honor a really good friend, Jay Pierson. Years ago I came to this Capitol Hill as a congressional aide. I had the pleasure of working as a legislative aide at the White House, and then I headed Congressional Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget. And my job was what's going on; make sure my boss, the President of the United States, in essence, knew what was going on. That meant I had to have a direct line right here. And this was before C-SPAN. You couldn't turn on the TV and watch what's going on. Sorry. And by the way, Mr. Petri, there are 30 million people watching tonight as they let us honor Jay Pierson. But you had to know what's going on, and Jay was my contact. He was my link. He would let me know what was going on. I have to say that when I probably surprised a few people and became a Member and actually had a voting card here, he still had my back. He really did. And there's probably not a week, probably not a week certainly when we've been in session, but even when we've been out of session, that I haven't called his office to find out what's going on and be able to share with my colleagues and really do the people's business. We've had a great relationship, we really have. And just like he had my back, he had the back of every Member in this institution. He taught us the rules and the procedures, time on amendments, how to get things done.…”