Political Quotes

“it is apparent where we are. What I do not want to see happen is that this escalates into comments from the other side accusing us of not caring about this bill. We have led on this bill. We finished it in November. The House finished it in December. Right after that I said the ratio will be 7 to 5. It is an internal problem within their caucus that we have to address and that is what leadership is all about--in terms of picking five people and picking seven people and then proceeding to conference. It is almost as petty that it plays into this pattern of obstruction. It is what is going on. I went through my whole opening there--we have been on this PATRIOT Act now for weeks and weeks with procedural move after procedural move after procedural move on a bill we know is going to pass overwhelmingly. When you see what happens there, and then you see this postponement and obstruction on a pensions bill we care passionately about, that the American people care about, that hundreds of thousands of people's futures depend on, that is disturbing. We have to step above it. That is what the American people expect us to be doing. I am concerned. The Senate Democrats are refusing to go to conference with 7 to 5. They have had 2 months to address this within their caucus. I proposed if you can't appoint five and you can't convince five people to represent you, then we will go to six and then we are going to go to nine. That will be a counterproposal.…”