Political Quotes

“I just finished a meeting to try to lay out to a number of Senators what we are going to be doing on the supplemental appropriations bill. It is going to be extremely difficult for us to get from where we are today to completing this legislation in a timely fashion. There are some very complicated issues, some very strong feelings by a lot of different Senators. As highly controversial as is this war and this war funding, we are going to have to work together; otherwise, we are going to walk away from here this week with nothing done. That, I assume, is one alternative. It is not one I think most want, but that is an alternative. The other problem we have, because of longstanding commitments, including the wedding of one of our Members, is we are going to start losing Senators very quickly. Because of that, there are two Senators who are going to leave sometime Thursday. They will not be here. We have, of course, Presidentials out in the country someplace. We are going to have to try to figure out when they need to be here. Senator Kennedy is still having tests run to determine when he can return. So, to make a long story really short, we have a complicated path to completing our work, and we have to try to figure out a way to do the budget in this time period also.”