Political Quotes

“Mr. President, certainly, if you walk down the main streets of this country and ask our citizens what a hold is in the U.S. Senate, you are certainly not going to find many Americans who are familiar with this practice. But the fact of the matter is, this is an awesome, awesome power exercised by a Member of the U.S. Senate. The power to put a hold on a bill or a nomination is the power to singlehandedly, effectively block the consideration of a bill or nomination from coming to the floor of the U.S. Senate. All Senator Grassley and I are asking tonight is that when a Member of the U.S. Senate exercises this extraordinary power, that it be publicly disclosed. All we are asking is for an end to the secrecy. My constituents look at the U.S. Senate sometimes and raise questions about how business is done here and, frankly, have some suspicions about the way the Senate conducts business. Sometimes I think they suspect that the procedures around here are a little bit like an elegant game of three-card monte.”