Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise to express my disappointment that we were unable to reach an agreement today to begin debate on reforming Wall Street. As my colleague from New Jersey, Senator Menendez, so eloquently put it, this is not the time to say no. This is the time to move forward and get something done. Someone referred to the Senate the other day as dysfunction junction. It was a nice little rhyme, and I can tell you it is incidents such as the one we saw tonight, where our friends on the other side of the aisle will not even allow debate to start, that leads to that sad name. We are ready to move away from the station. There are those of us who have been out talking to our constituents, and we know the train has to leave the junction. The train has to move ahead, and we need to move ahead with this Wall Street reform. Last week, I came to the floor with some of my colleagues to talk about another delay--a delay of nominations. These are nominees who have been voted out of committee, sometimes with unanimous support, but are now waiting months for a full vote on the Senate floor. During this same timeframe in the Bush administration, five nominees were outstanding. Yet the same time during the Obama administration over 100 nominees are outstanding. So if there is anyone who doesn't believe us about this delay and what is going on, look at those numbers and look at what is happening with this reform.…”