Political Quotes

“Mr. President and colleagues, the American people are furious at the way business is done in Washington, DC. Today, on the floor of the Senate, we saw a pretty good reason why. For many months, a large group of Senators on both sides of the aisle--Senator Grassley, Senator Inhofe, Senator Collins, and Senator Bennett, among the Republicans; a host of my colleagues on our side of the aisle, led by Senator McCaskill--have been working to try to eliminate the secret hold in the Senate, which is, in my view, one of the most pernicious, most antidemocratic practices in government. What the secret hold allows is for just one Senator--just one--to anonymously keep the American people from getting any sense of a particular piece of legislation, someone who has been nominated for an appointment--any sense of some of the most important business that is before the Senate. The Senator from Missouri, who is in the Chamber, has noted that at times there are scores and scores of these secret holds. I have pointed out this has happened for years on both sides of the aisle. So this has been an opportunity, when the country is crying out for bipartisanship, for Democrats and Republicans to together--as our large group has done--fix this, to open our government, to ensure that democracy is accountable, and that public business is actually done in public. Until about an hour or so ago, I thought we would win a dramatic victory for the cause of open government.…”