Political Quotes

“I want to first of all thank my dear friend and colleague from Virginia for his impassioned remarks. And I know that the Presiding Officer can't enter into these discussions, but as the gentleman who represents the neighboring State of Maryland, I think I can say, without fear of being contradicted, that the Virginia and Maryland delegations in the U.S. Senate are completely united in total agreement on this issue. As Senator Kaine just pointed out, I think it is amazing that there has not been more news coverage of it yet. I hope that the paper of record, the Washington Post, actually covers some of these items, but two planes came within 300 feet of colliding at DCA on the runway. Now, I am thankful there was no loss of life, but it is just plain unacceptable that this even happened. And, again, Senator Kaine said you don't have to take his word. You don't have to take my word. You can go online and listen to the audio from the control tower to understand just how frighteningly close we came to disaster. That we came so close to catastrophe yesterday makes it absolutely clear: It is just plain crazy that some are pushing to add even more flights to DCA's already overburdened runway. Let me go through some of the stats. DCA averages 819 daily takeoffs and landings from its main runway. That is more than any other runway in the Nation. That is more than any runway at LAX, Chicago O'Hare, Atlanta Hartsfield, at Newark--you name it.…”