Pete Domenici: “I wish the Senator from Arizona were here, because I would like to tell him I agree with many of the things he said. I…”

“I wish the Senator from Arizona were here, because I would like to tell him I agree with many of the things he said. I certainly did not come to the floor--in fact, I left after the last vote, assuming I would not be back down here. I thought we were going on with something and that his bill, which had been debated, although it had a number of small amendments--I thought it would go through here and become law. But I have to admit between that little visit to my office and what I got on the phone about 25 minutes ago were very different. I don't want to be accusatory; I just want to say the minority leader, over a long period of time, has been in the same predicament we have all been in with reference to an Energy bill. He has been in the same predicament regarding ethanol as we have. We produced the first bill this year that had ethanol in it. As a matter of fact, everybody remembers that comprehensive bill was defeated by two votes in a cloture. It got 58 votes--that first one. What we have is somebody has taken a piece of the Energy bill and attached it not directly to the McCain amendment but to the tree on the side, as an amendment which will fail when McCain passes.”