Kent Conrad: “I want to enter a plea to my colleagues: We need an attitude adjustment around here. We need an attitude adjustment…”

“I want to enter a plea to my colleagues: We need an attitude adjustment around here. We need an attitude adjustment around here. Here it looks pretty placid. Underneath all of this, there is a great deal of turmoil. If we are going to complete this in any reasonable way, we have to have people be more cooperative, less confrontational, less insistent on side-by-side amendments for even minor matters. I plead with my colleagues. I have a feeling what we have here is a lot of staff members who have gone into hyperactive mode, insisting on things in the name of their boss, and I bet their boss doesn't even know. I bet a lot of bosses would be a little embarrassed, frankly, about the insistence being made here from their staffs about how they have to have this and they have to have that, no matter how minor, no matter how insignificant, no matter how petty. I will tell my colleagues, it is wearing pretty thin with me. It is wearing real thin with me. I want to send that message. Senator Gregg and I have been here for hours, we will be here hours more. We were here all day yesterday. Let's get serious. If we want to get done, then everybody is going to have to start getting a little better attitude about getting done. I hope people think very carefully about what I have said.”