Political Quotes

“Essentially what he and I and Senator Grassley have been talking about is the quaint notion that the public's business ought to be done in public. This is not a complicated idea. As I have mentioned earlier, I am sure the vast majority of Americans have no idea what a secret hold is. It is not written down anywhere. This is something you wouldn't find 1 of 1,000 people having any idea about. But this is, in fact, one of the most powerful weapons, one of the most significant tools a Member of this body could possibly have. It is utilized without any accountability whatsoever. The distinguished chairman of the Rules Committee pointed out in hearings, and we heard it echoed by Senator Dodd, the bizarre kind of process of trying to track down Senators who are thousands of miles away from Capitol Hill and still claiming to have an objection when, in a lot of instances, they may not even know about it; their staff will have objected to it. So what we have sought to do in this effort is to not limit the powers of any Member of the Senate but simply to say that power ought to be accompanied by responsibility.”