Political Quotes

“I want to make sure we give a little bit of the Democratic response. I had the opportunity to get to know Joe and Gayle--Lisa and I did-- when he was a Governor. And Joe gave this incredibly moving, important speech today. He left out one small part, because when he was making the decision to leave--Gayle, as you know, he has described it many times as the best job ever--he called me. And I said: Joe, come here, and we can do a whole lot of things. And I say to my Republican colleagues, he was that independent streak from his first caucus meeting. We had our caucus lunch. You know, he did not adhere to the ``freshman should be seen but not speak.'' So he got up, early on in the lunch, and was already complaining about the job. He sat down, and, I swear to goodness--and, Gayle, we have talked about this--at the end of the lunch, he got up for a second time because he wanted to remind us that when he was Governor of the great State of West Virginia, he had two airplanes, a helicopter, and control of the whole National Guard, and now he is reduced to a junior Senator. Over the years, he has reminded me often of that call. As people talked, he sometimes would complain about the process or what was happening this week or that week on the floor. And as has been echoed by everyone else, one of the things that Joe always stood for and has always been about is this notion that we ought to reason together.…”