Political Quotes

“I have indicated, Madam President, we have a lot of work to do. The chairman of the Judiciary Committee and I have stated on a number of occasions that on controversial judicial nominations we are not going to move on those until the minority tells us that is what they want to do. One of those nominations is Judge Southwick. That matter was reported out of committee sometime ago, and both Senator Leahy and I have said that when the Republicans tell us they want to move to that nomination, we would do that. So sometime next week I am more than likely going to move to that matter. So I want everyone to know that, in fact, is the case. I also, Madam President, have indicated that one of our priorities is to do an energy bill this year. I had a meeting yesterday with Democratic chairs and other interested people, including Senator Cantwell and Senator Dorgan, to find out how we can move forward. We realize we can move forward. We have a number of issues that are important. The issues are somewhat limited. One is what are we going to do on CAFE, raising the fuel efficiency of vehicles? What are we going to do about a renewable portfolio standard? And what are we going to do about the tax aspect of this that will do a number of important things, not the least of which is give the great entrepreneurs in our country the incentives to invest in alternative fuel--sun, wind, geothermal, biomass? We need this to be done on a multiple-year basis.”