Political Quotes

“after listening to the previous speakers, Mr. Speaker, I think of Ronald Reagan's words, There you go again. Every 4 years we sort of experience the spinning and the demagoguery that takes place in this chamber using these podiums and C-SPAN to criticize the sitting President. Of course, Republicans did it 4 years ago and 8 years ago. When I first came into office and was elected in 1992, the Democrats in this Chamber were using this forum to criticize the first President Bush, all the things that went wrong. But I think of what the criticisms were of President Reagan when he came into office. When President Reagan came to office America was demoralized. President Carter had spoken about our malaise in Watergate, and our defeat in Vietnam had all shaken our self-confidence. We had given up the Panama canal. The Shah of Iran and supporters of the Ayatollah Khomeini held 52 of our Americans hostage for more than a year at our embassy in Tehran. The military rescue mission, of course, failed in the desert, and we lost eight of our servicemen in that venture. Communism was on the march, and after South Vietnam fell, Cambodia followed. The Sandinistas took control of Nicaragua and Communist insurgencies were underway in Ethiopia, Angola, and certainly the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and were suppressing the solidarity movement in Poland. Our economic situation was very dire in 1980, and President Reagan came in and actually renewed our faith.…”