Political Quotes

“I think that is an important observation my friend has made. In so many ways, this practice that the Senator has described--a practice that results in minimizing rather than maximizing the number of votes we cast--has as its ultimate objective, not the enhancement of the finished legislative product, but instead the perpetual protection of incumbency. We were not chosen by our constituents just to come here and stay here for as long as we possibly could. We were chosen by our constituents to come here and to make law, and to make the law as good as we could possibly make it. We were brought here to improve it to the greatest extent of our ability regardless of the consequences to us personally. It is interesting what the Senator said just a few minutes ago. We are paid to vote. In a very real sense I think that is right. Wouldn't it be interesting if we were literally paid according to how many votes we cast? As a lawyer, the Senator is probably familiar with what may well be anecdotal, but some have suggested that one of the reasons why certain types of contracts in olden times were so long is that sometimes lawyers were paid not by the hour but by the word in a contract. Sometimes, as a result, the vestigial remains persist to this very day. They were so long because lawyers were trying to maximize their fee for the contract they were writing up.…”