Political Quotes

“I remember the first time I visited Washington. I was 18 years old and came here with my mother and father and my sister, Mary. It was in the spring and I was a young college student. I remember visiting the Capitol and seeing for the first time the Chamber that we are now in--a memory I have never lost. I came back here 3 years later as a law student. During my years at Georgetown, I visited the Congress, especially the U.S. Senate, over and over again. I heard so many of the great debates, from civil rights, through Supreme Court nominations, to what the Senate would do following the tragic change of Presidents in 1963. In those debates, the Senate upheld its role in the continuity of our country and the Senate helped shape the conscience of the Nation. After law school I went back to Vermont and was fortunate to become a prosecutor in our State's largest county. To many, it may appear that a prosecutor faces cut-and-dried questions. One either broke the law or one didn't. I quickly learned that it was not quite that easy a choice. The greatest thing a prosecutor possesses besides his or her integrity is prosecutorial discretion. The prosecutor always has to ask if the law is just and does the penalty fit the crime. In 1972 I was faced with a question about Vermont's abortion statute. I long felt that this was a case where the law, even if constitutional, carried a punishment that did not reflect the crime.”