Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Florida and the gentleman from Illinois for putting together this Special Order hour to talk about something that is very important, and that is voting rights in this country. On the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, that happened in Selma, Alabama, 58 years ago, a group of courageous civil rights activists were brutally attacked on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in that city as they marched against legalized segregation, legalized apartheid in America, and voter suppression. One of these activists who was beaten within an inch of his life was our friend and late colleague John Lewis. Now, nearly six decades later, I am very sad to report to you that a lot of these attacks are starting to take place again, but in a different type of a way, because people are clever. You heard Lee Atwater, on his deathbed, say that if you say it that way, people will stop listening to you, so you have got to say it this way. So people have become very clever about how they unveil these attacks on people's voting rights. I want to start in my home State of Texas. You know, something interesting, after the Voting Rights Act was passed, for decades, we were probably the leaders when it came to expanding voting rights for citizens in the State of Texas.…”