Political Quotes

“Mr. President, we have been working for several days--I have been working on it for a lot longer than several days--but for several days publicly on a process to move forward with the PATRIOT Act. We have worked over the last several days to work something out that is an excellent compromise. Is this bill something everybody in the Senate likes or everybody in the House likes? The answer is no. But we all know how important it is that we continue this legislation. So Senator McConnell and I and Speaker Boehner have agreed on a way to move forward. The alternative is to have a long long-term extension that the House would send us and I don't think that would be to anyone's benefit, so we are moving forward. I have tried to do it with the bill that we invoked cloture on yesterday. I have had many conversations with Senator Paul and others, but principally him, and tried to come up with a process to allow Senator Paul to offer amendments--and others to offer amendments; it is not just him. I have been unsuccessful. I understand Senator Paul's exasperation because this is something that is extremely important to him and there was every desire, from my perspective and I think that of this body, to have a full and complete debate on the PATRIOT Act. But the Senate does not always work that way. There have been a lot of things that have gotten in the way and the time is suddenly upon us. We have to complete this legislation by midnight on Thursday.…”