Political Quotes

“Madam President, to my friend, I have given a couple of statements the last 2 days about the Capitol Police, but I never brought up the fact that I was a police officer. I was a police officer here in this building. My badge number is 364. I was an original. I still have it in my office here. I am proud of that. I did not have to do the dangerous things these young men and women do here. Some of them are not so young. They are really senior officers. But I carried a gun. I did some of what police officers do. To think, as we look around this room--plainclothes officers are here, not getting paid. One of the officers was hurt and was hospitalized in that accident. He wasn't getting paid. Tell me, I say to anyone who will listen or answer this question, why don't we open the government and let people go to work and do their jobs. Public service is a calling--I won't say it is a calling, but some people feel it is. I see the Senator from Maine. He and I worked in this building, the Capitol complex. Maybe that is where we developed our love of public service. I don't know where we developed it, but we both have it. Here is a man who has done such remarkable things. He not only worked in the Senate many years ago, he was in the march for which we celebrated the 50-year anniversary. From a tree, he watched Dr. Martin Luther King give a speech. He loves public service, and he has a career that proves that.…”