Political Quotes

“I would say this: The Republican leader is absolutely right, and we have tried real hard on some nongermane amendments to get some votes. It is not all their fault. We have, on our side, a Senator or two who simply will not let us agree to votes on nongermane amendments because they say and have said for the last 2 days: You gave a vote on theirs; why don't I get a vote on mine. So we have agreed to. As I explained to some Senators assembled here in the well earlier today, when we moved to this bill, I said it would be open for amendment, and it has been, and there is no way we can get out of germane amendments. We can invoke cloture, but they are still available. On the nongermane amendments, you run into problems like we have run into in these last couple of days. There are some really big issues people are objecting to and not allowing these other amendments to be heard unless they get theirs. We have this habeas corpus issue, and there has been all kinds of talk on that. That is okay, from my perspective, but we have spent a lot of time on that issue before. We have over on this side something dealing with Katrina about which Senator Landrieu feels very strongly. We have a Senator over here who is interested in the PATRIOT Act and changing that. It goes back and forth, with both sides having all kinds of things they want, but it is an open process.”