Political Quotes

“It has been an honor to represent the people of greater Cincinnati in public office for more than 35 years now. I thought I would take a few minutes to sum up those years. I first ran for office, Cincinnati City Council, when I was 26 years old. When this, my last term in Congress, expires next month in January, I will be turning 70. 26 to 70, that is long enough. It is somebody else's turn. I had seriously considered retiring and not running this past election cycle, but it was a redistricting year. The congressional lines were being redrawn, and I was concerned that if I didn't run, our district was going to be written off and drawn in a way that only a Democrat could win it as had been done 10 years ago in Columbus and prior to that in Cleveland. I didn't want to see that happen to the people of greater Cincinnati who depended on me and trusted me to represent them as a commonsense conservative for so many years. Redistricting turned out to be a pretty rocky process. I ended up with a 9-point Biden district, making it the toughest Republican-held seat in the country outside the State of California. {time} 1045 Despite starting out in a 9-point hole, I hoped that with a lot of hard work and a little luck we could hold it anyway. I was wrong. That is water over the dam. There is a Chinese proverb, ``May you live in interesting times.'' My 26 years in Congress have certainly been that.…”