Political Quotes

“for Eastern Europe February 27, 1991 Thank you very much. Nice to see all of you. Please be seated, and welcome, all. I'm very pleased to be here in my role as what's billed as a cameo appearance, in and out--[laughter]--and let you get on with the important work before you. But I want to welcome all of you to the White House. Thank you for your participation. A number have come from very far away: Vice President Pregl of Yugoslavia; the Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Mr. Pirinski; and Ministers from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. Among so many others here today, George Varga from Hungary and Haile Aguilar from Poland, Drew Lewis--where's Drew? I don't see him. Among others who are not here is Drew Lewis. [Laughter] But let me just say this: His leadership at the Citizens Democracy Corps has been just fantastic. And I was hoping he'd be here so I could single him out. He's for lunch--okay. And of course, Dave Gergen, who I understand is ably moderating all of this. I salute Secretaries Robson and Eagleburger, too. Yesterday I was on the phone for a long time with Vaclav Havel, the President of Czechoslovakia. And I made clear to him that, though the Gulf obviously is dominating the news coverage and claiming a lot of our time, I have not lost interest, nor has anyone in our government--as Secretaries Eagleburger and Robson can attest to--we have not lost interest in what's going on in Eastern Europe. All our people here are experts.…”