Political Quotes

“First of all, let me just thank you for putting together this discussion today. Let me thank both the Senator from Alaska and the Senator from Iowa for their service to our country, although the Senator from Iowa is clearly too young to have retired already. I did have the opportunity and the true privilege of serving as the Governor of South Dakota and of working with a number of members of the National Guard--in fact, not only Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City, SD, but also the 114th Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard, out of Sioux Falls. Both have participated in the defense of our country time and again. Today, let my just add a little bit of my thoughts in terms of what is going on here in the Senate today. I speak of it not in terms of partisan issues but rather as statements of fact and finding a way to identify them and finding ways in which we can actually take our system, make it better than what it is today, and try to discover what it is that makes this system down here so difficult to work through in times in which we should find solid support for such items as a Defense appropriations bill. South Dakotans have heard me say time and again that the No. 1 responsibility of the Federal Government is the defense of our country. Unless that responsibility is fulfilled, our freedoms are in jeopardy. Yet, six times--six times--this body has been blocked by Senate Democrats from considering legislation to fund the Department of Defense.…”