Political Quotes

“today is a sad day for this institution. The Senate operates based on trust. Whether we are Democrats or Republicans, these 100 Senators have to be able to trust that when a Senator says something, he or she will do it, even if we disagree on substance--that we don't lie to each other. What we just witnessed this morning is profoundly disappointing. I want to describe the context of two preceding discussions. A number of weeks ago, when this Senate was considering trade promotion authority, a group of Senators gathered on this floor and blocked TPA for many minutes because they were pressing for the Export- Import Bank. They huddled on this floor and negotiated a deal in front of C-SPAN and in front of the world. Then, when they had their deal, TPA had the votes to pass. Shortly thereafter, we had a Senate Republican lunch, where I stood and asked the majority leader, very directly: What is the deal that was just cut on TPA and was there a deal for the Export-Import Bank? It was a direct question I asked the majority leader in front of all of the Republican Senators. The majority leader was visibly angry with me that I would ask such a question, and the majority leader looked at me and said: There is no deal. There is no deal. There is no deal. Like Saint Peter, he repeated it three times.…”