Political Quotes

“Mr. President, continuing the conversation, my colleague from New Mexico pointed out the challenge with authorization bills. We should add to that, during 2010, the Senate did not manage to pass a single appropriations bill. It is dysfunction on top of dysfunction. That is why we are here today. I put back up the chart of Jimmy Stewart in the well because I think at the heart of this conversation is a notion that, yes, every Senator should be able to hold forth, to share their idea, to advocate that in which they believe, to persuade their colleagues, but not to simply lodge an objection and walk away and never present their case before the American people. Our good colleague from Tennessee said he wanted to see--how did he put it?--something to the effect of a ``talking your heads off'' form of filibuster, and he referred to Jimmy Stewart. There is a sense of commonality in our views that if one is going to vote to continue debate, then the debate should continue--it is that simple--so the citizens can see if you have a case to make that makes sense, and they can weigh in and help turn the tide in the direction of the Senator, or that you have no case to make and they want you to sit down and have the Senate get on with its business. That is simple. There are many ideas for much more radical steps--steps in which we would proceed to say, yes, we will do something different. We will eliminate the filibuster. But that is not the proposal I am speaking to today.…”