George H.W. Bush: “He's the leader of the Democratic Party, pretty much. Ron Brown, maybe, but Mitchell, Jesse Jackson, and a handful of…”

“He's the leader of the Democratic Party, pretty much. Ron Brown, maybe, but Mitchell, Jesse Jackson, and a handful of others. But he's got to stand there and say what he thinks and rally his troops. But I want to rally around what's good for the United States in this instance and leave the politics aside. I think the good politics are probably on the other side of this issue. But I know I'm right on it, and therefore I'm going to fight for it, as I did and as we did--I shouldn't put this personally--on the Fast Track. We started, and all of you know this, with some big uphill odds on it. We came through because Carla Hills and others--Bob Mosbacher and so many others were very persuasive. And we'll have the same approach to this question. But I have no argument with George Mitchell to start with. I mean, he takes a position the minute I finish speaking, but that's politics. Now, we sit down and talk about the issue. And if I can convince him, fine. It's not just Mitchell. We've got people in our own party that are out there jumping around you, still. So, I'm not aiming the partisan shot at him; I just happened to hear what he had to say.”