Political Quotes

“I say to my colleague from Oklahoma, that if these secret police were released on the streets of Tulsa, you would be down here defending your constituents, but you have a responsibility to defend all constituents across the country, the rights of all citizens in the United States of America. I am not asking you to support my bill. I am not asking you to make the argument for it. I am asking for the simple courtesy that this Chamber do the job it is vested with under the Constitution, which is to take up serious issues that arise in America, hold a dialogue about them on this floor, and take a vote to show the American people where we stand in the hopes to solve the problem. I have no doubt that I wouldn't get 100 votes. You raise some interesting points. You note that my request to debate a very serious issue in America circumvents process. I can state that for 200 years this Chamber believed it was here to address serious issues, and they didn't raise process issues to keep serious issues from being debated. You didn't need unanimous consent. Just a few decades ago, I was here watching this Chamber working the Tax Reform Act and watching each amendment completed, and as soon as it was done, the next Senator asked for the recognition of the Chair. In fact, normally there would be about 10 Senators saying--and it was always ``Mr. President.'' Now it is often ``Madam President.'' But they were getting attention because the next person who spoke got the next amendment.…”