Political Quotes

“first, let me say there is a great deal the Senator from Connecticut just said that we are in nearly full agreement on. I find it ironic that we are probably going to cancel ourselves out on these two votes later in the day, for essentially the same reasons that the Senator just gave. I thank the Senator for his comments, and particularly on this second piece of legislation which I have been struggling with and in exactly the same way the Senator from Connecticut has. I wish to begin my comments today by expressing my strong support for the majority leader in terms of how he handled a very difficult discussion on Thursday night. I think we can all agree that the Senate at times has become quite dysfunctional over the past couple of years. I was very interested to hear Senator Corker's comments. He and I arrived at the Senate at the same time, and I empathize with a lot of the comments he was making, although I guess looking for accountability depends on which end of the telescope you are looking through. For me, looking at the situation we faced on Thursday night, we have to start with the reality that these were not serious amendments that were being offered at the end of the debate of this piece of legislation. They in many ways epitomize the paralysis of serious debate here in this body and how it affects all of our ability to get serious things done. Only one of those nine proposals was germane, and that was the proposal from my good friend Senator Hatch.…”