Political Quotes

“let me congratulate my colleague from Oklahoma for a very fine statement, and let me associate myself with each and every word and each and every fact he outlined in his very fine statement, and also with the remarks of my friend from Missouri who went before him. I appreciate their leadership on this issue. Let me, at this point, also give a salute to the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, to the right of freedom of speech, which we have seen exercised in this building and in this Nation during the course of this debate, and the freedom granted to petition the government for address of grievances. We have seen examples of that. They have been on full display in this healthcare debate, a phase of which will come to a close I hope this evening. Let me give a shout out to our staff members. They have fielded thousands, if not tens of thousands, of phone calls, letters, emails, and visits from Americans exercising their rights under the First Amendment. Americans have come to their Capital City, almost all of them in an appropriate and nondisruptive way--sometimes intense, for sure--expressing their opinions but also in display of their First Amendment rights. After all the debate, all the conversation, and all the exhortation on this issue, we have seen a lot of things said from the floor and a lot of things said on the news media that have amounted to a matter of opinion. But here is one thing I know for a fact.…”