Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, before I go to my next speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to respond to my friends. First, to my good friend from Massachusetts, and he is very much my good friend, but when I was in the minority, I asked repeatedly, I used to come up to the Rules Committee, as a former member of the Rules Committee, and I always got the warmest, most gracious reception, but I don't think I ever got an amendment approved. You can legislate on appropriations bills if the chairman of the authorizing committee consents to allow you to do it. I have a great deal of sympathy with my friend's position on Ms. Lee's amendment. I actually supported that amendment in subcommittee, but I recognize that we are not the appropriate committee, and if a different authorizing chairman wanted to do something, he could. Finally, with all due respect to my friend, we are not the ones that began this process of eliminating open rules on appropriations. My friend's party is. We actually tried to restore it. I regret that we did not succeed in that. This was not something I like doing, but, frankly, it has gotten around here where people are more interested in ``got you'' amendments than real amendments, and that is basically what has happened here. I hope we can revisit that someday and go back to the traditional way of doing this. Finally, to my good friend from Minnesota, I want to make a pledge to her, and she knows it is sincere: we will work together.…”