Political Quotes

“I will be very brief. I know people are waiting to speak. I guess it would surprise the world in general to know that Tom Coburn and I are true friends, but we are. He is a man of integrity above all. You don't have to agree with someone--we probably disagree on 90 percent of all the issues--to trust someone's integrity, to trust someone's handshake, to trust someone that if you make a good argument, understanding their values, they will come along. That is just what Tom Coburn has done time and time again with this Senator from New York and countless others on the other side of the aisle. On so many issues where Tom was opposed, I said: Let's just sit down and let me give you the logic and then you will make your own judgment. And I knew that would be good enough. Sometimes it didn't work. Sometimes he disagreed. But he always sat and listened. He always asked perceptive questions, not ``gotcha'' questions. He was trying to figure it out. Of course the most well known was when we negotiated on the Zadroga bill. Thousands of New Yorkers had rushed to the towers and gotten poison in their lungs and their gastrointestinal systems, and we wanted to help them. We thought they were just like our veterans. Tom knew it was a big expense. He sat with us, listened, made suggestions to make it leaner and trimmer, and then supported the bill. So right now there are people alive throughout the New York area, heroes, because of the integrity of that man from Oklahoma.…”