Timothy Penny: “If the gentleman would yield again, there is no clearer example of heated debate involving intense differences than the…”

“If the gentleman would yield again, there is no clearer example of heated debate involving intense differences than the example our Founding Fathers set in Philadelphia as they worked in 1778 to craft our Nation's Constitution. There were philosophical differences. There were regional differences. There were differences based on age and experience. The debate there raged on for weeks and was rancorous and cantankerous at times, but in the final analysis, they set aside their differences and focused on the common ground. The product of their work was this Nation's Constitution which has lived on for these 200 years which is ample evidence of the virtue of the more bipartisan approach to dealing with the legislative issues facing this Nation. And to get back to the quote from Robert Frost, it goes as this: ``Two roads diverged in the woods, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and it has made all the difference.'' In modern-day Congress, I have now been here 11 years, and you have been here less than half that time. I have seen far too little bipartisanship. It is the road less traveled by. But if we finally get on that road, I am convinced that for the workings of this institution and for the interests of this Nation, it will make all the difference.”