Political Quotes

“Mr. President, before he leaves the floor, I wish to engage my friend for a moment with respect to his remarks. He is absolutely right that we have been friends since we arrived here, and we are working together on a whole host of projects right now. So this is debate about differences of opinion with respect to some of the key issues. I wish to make a couple of quick points in response to my colleague. My colleague said there had been an inclusive process for discussing this. As far as I can tell, the vast amount of discussion basically took place between the judges and the government. My guess is, if you and I walked into a coffee shop in Houston or Dallas, or in my home State, in Coos Bay or Eugene, people wouldn't have any idea what was going to happen tonight at midnight. Tonight at midnight is going to be a significant moment in this discussion. My colleague made the point with respect to security and privacy. I definitely feel those two are not mutually exclusive; we can have both, but it is going to take smart policies. My colleague has done a lot of important work on the Freedom of Information Act issues. These are complicated, important issues, and nobody up here has had a chance to weigh in. There has been a process with some judges, and I guess some folks got a chance to submit a brief. Maybe there was a notice in the Federal Register; that is the way it usually works, but nobody at home knows anything about that.…”