Political Quotes

“I began this week with a stomach virus that had me flat on my back and very quickly that illness was replaced with a sickness in my stomach from watching our fellow Americans, some of the most vulnerable, some of the poorest, hurting, even dying, and all week long, like many of my colleagues I have spoken with today, feeling somewhat helpless, even as a Federal legislator, not being able to roll up my sleeves and go and help our fellow man. We are with all of these people. From the Tennessee Valley to the Silicon Valley, we stand with our friends and neighbors in Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama, but particularly in the New Orleans area and in southern Mississippi where the devastation is so bad. Mr. Speaker, there is going to be plenty of time to point fingers, scrub the problems, determine what changes need to be made, what broke down at the local, State, Federal level. I hope knowing this institution now as well as I have known it for 11 years, and knowing the goodness of most people from both sides of the aisle, we can do as much as possible, like we did after September 11 and come together, bring the Nation together, around the solutions. This has been an extraordinary time over these last 4 years in this country as we put 22 agencies together to form the Department of Homeland Security, including taking FEMA from an independent agency under this new umbrella.…”