Political Quotes

“I thank the Chair. Madam President, I think we are playing with fire when we talk about amending the Senate rules. All of us have been here for different periods of time. I have been here for 8 years, which actually sounds like a long time, but in the life of the Senate is not very long at all in an institution that has existed for more than 200 years. I have been here when our side was in the majority. As a matter of fact, we had the White House, we had both Houses of Congress. And I have been here when we have had President Obama in the White House and Democrats controlling both Houses of Congress. I can tell you, unequivocally, it is a whole lot more fun to be here when you are in the majority. But there are certain temptations that the majority has which I think are exacerbated when, for example, during most of the last 2 years, one party or the other has the ability in the Senate to basically pass legislation by essentially a party-line vote; in other words, as I recall on that morning at 7 a.m. on Christmas Eve a year ago, when the vote on the health care bill came up where all 60 Democrats voted for the bill and no Republicans voted for the bill. My point being: The temptation is, when you have such a large majority--60 or more--there is a huge temptation in both parties--not just the Democrats; Republicans, I am sure, would be tempted as well-- to try to go it alone.…”