Political Quotes

“I say to Senator Merkley, I couldn't think of this being a more appropriate time. I think it is fertile ground, and I think it is great that we have come here. The important thing to remember is a point you and I both made in the past, and it has to do with the old movie everybody knows called ``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.'' People always thought the filibuster was as it is portrayed in that movie. You have Mr. Smith coming to Washington, and he is concerned with a passion about an issue, and he thinks he may be in the minority, but he wants to fight it out. He comes to the floor and he speaks about it, and he rallies people outside. Now today, as we know, you don't see that very often. Actually, sometimes what people call a filibuster, we are at the early stage of a motion to proceed before we even get onto the bill. What we are doing is trying to return to ``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.'' What we want to see happen is a talking filibuster where every Senator gets to talk. As you and I know--you have been a real scholar and a student of the Senate in terms of its history--before there was this rule in place on the filibuster, the tradition was always that every Senator had an opportunity to speak. That was a fine Senate tradition. It was established. They didn't have to write it down. Everybody said: We are not going to take any action until we let every Senator speak.…”