Arlen Specter: “The relationships are very important. It is the development of skills on accommodation. One of the facets about the…”

“The relationships are very important. It is the development of skills on accommodation. One of the facets about the Senate that has always intrigued me is what happens between the votes when we are all captive here, so to speak. You have to wait a while for late Senators to show up--though not as long with the new majority leader--and there are conversations that go on. A tremendous amount of business is transacted. In a sense, it is like there is a certain aspect of a social event--not quite a cocktail party without cocktails--but a lot of business is transacted. There are a lot of accommodations and a lot of learning about personalities and how to come together on issues. We have too much partisanship in this body. This aisle that separates the Democrats and the Republicans is too wide much of the time. But there are also occasions where we come together and work together. I am pleased to say in the last few days I think we are going to meet the majority leader's timetable on an immigration bill, where we have to come together. It is experience and relationships and skills which lead us to many conclusions, notwithstanding all of our problems. Nobody said it better than Churchill, that the system has lots of failings, but it is the best compared to any other system.”