Political Quotes

“the hardest thing I think in politics or life is to argue with people you are close to personally and that you share a common philosophy and way of doing business with. That is where I find myself. I find myself in the distinct minority among my party. I find myself hearing the Speaker and others saying this particular piece of legislation would destroy my party. I respectfully disagree, but it is no fun being where we are at today. In 1996, when we first started talking about reforming this system, it sounded good to me, and it still does. Half the people in this country vote. Of those eligible to vote, half of those do not even register. We are getting down to just a few people having participation feelings about our government. I am convinced, rightly or wrongly, that the way we conduct campaigns is turning Americans off in droves. The soft money problem, I am glad this amendment is up. We need to ban soft money. I would say to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Hayworth), we need to do it now, we really do; and I am going to vote for that. But I am going to vote for Shays-Meehan. A lot of this is games. But let me tell you what it is like. If you give $25,000 to the Republican Party, the Democratic Party wants $30,000, because it gets out in about 30 seconds. If you are a company out there and they call you up on the phone wanting money, you say no at your own peril.…”