Political Quotes

“we will shortly be called upon to vote on an amendment that I offered yesterday with Senator Torricelli to change the name of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building, in effect to take his name off the building and have it referred to as the FBI Building. That underlying amendment is really about how we honor those who undertake the profession of public service. The amendment is about those who serve the public and also contrasting that with those who abused its trust and violated the rights of thousands of public and private citizens. Mr. President, we dishonor our undisputed reputation as the greatest defender of civil liberties in the world by maintaining the name of J. Edgar Hoover on the FBI's headquarters. This amendment will remove one of the last vestiges of McCarthyism still on display in Washington. Yesterday, Mr. President, I talked about some of the things that he did. I talked about some of the people he abused, such as Joe Louis. Today, I am going to talk about a few more people whose civil rights he violated. Irving Berlin, the man who wrote "God Bless America," and "White Christmas" and hundreds of other songs, was a person that J. Edgar Hoover investigated endlessly for years. Irving Berlin did not die until he was 101 years old, but he was investigated by J. Edgar Hoover for most of his life.”