Political Quotes

“I will use a couple minutes prior to the vote in response to some of the comments that have been made, specifically in response to the Democratic leader's comments which I understand really are two. Are we committed to addressing energy issues and completing this bill? We are. We will continue to work aggressively on this bill starting earlier than we normally would and continuing later tonight. Again, I ask for amendments to come forward. We are going to address them one by one in a systematic way with adequate time for debate and amendment. Second, the question has been raised as to why we are considering these votes today, such as cloture on Miguel Estrada. The answer is, the American people deserve it. They understand we are not fulfilling our responsibility in this body without an up-or-down vote. That is our job. That is our responsibility. It is advice and consent of the judicial nominees sent by the President of the United States. That is being denied by the other side of the aisle. That is unacceptable to us. That is why that is being voted on today. I made it very clear in my request both publicly and otherwise that we would like to stack these votes as we are voting on other energy amendments; it is not us who requested the time. The complaint was made we were in a quorum call; why were we sitting in a quorum call in the middle of this bill? It should be made very clear that they requested that time and it was on their time that we were in a quorum call.…”