Political Quotes

“one reason we waited until 20 till 8 tonight to try to complete the work of the Senate is that I had a number of conversations today with my staff trying to work out nominations, and we worked something out. I spoke with the President's Chief of Staff, Josh Bolten. I have always found him to be a very pleasant man to work with. We arrived at an agreement we would approve, for example, ambassadors to 18 different countries; we would approve a man to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Senator Dodd went to a great deal of trouble to clear this nomination. In fact, he held a special meeting to get this nomination done. We were going to agree to a number of people, Republicans in nature: Stephen Krasner for the Institute of Peace; J. Robinson West for the Corporation for National Community Service--I am reading the Republicans because there are so few Democrats it is hardly worth mentioning--Eric Tannenblatt, Corporation for National and Community Service; Layshae Ward; Hyepin Christine Im. We have a number of military officers we agreed to, some 50 in number. In exchange for this, the Democrats were going to get three or four people. I have always thought, in my dealings around here, when we work something out, that is the agreement. But at the last minute, somebody steps in and says that isn't quite good enough. That is unfortunate because the arrangement was negotiated with staff and Mr. Bolten in good faith.”