Political Quotes

“Thank you very much for this award. I am honored and delighted to be here. My family are here too. There are some who say that I get this award as an attempt to keep me quiet and not write my book, which I of course will never do. I follow Martin Luther's remarks in the 16th century when he said, ``There are just too many books being written.'' I would like to introduce my successor over here Chaplain Coughlin. Stand up, Chaplain. The new chaplain. Matt mentioned the things that I have done. One of the things you probably will not believe is he said I went off a ski jump backwards. In Minnesota, that is what we did. In Minnesota, we had nine months of winter and three months of poor sledding, and many of us were ski jumpers. I did go out one day and they bet me I could not go off. We did single jumps, double jumps, triple jumps. They bet me that I could not go off backwards and I did. I was on the show, ``I've Got a Secret,'' and that was my secret and they could not guess it. And when it was announced that I had gone off the ski jump backwards, Henry Morgan raised his hand and said, ``Chaplain, I want to ask you a question. Is this when you first began to believe in God?'' And, Chaplain Coughlin, I want you to know something. When you hear that story about the chaplain praying, it is a Senate joke. The Senate Chaplain went out to pray for the Members, took one look at them and decided to pray for America. That is a Senate story, Chaplain, not our side.”