Political Quotes

“I have learned in my time in the Senate that if you want to get something done across the aisle, you really need the following: You need someone on the other side who is just as committed to working together as you are, and that Member needs to have the trust of Members on your side of the aisle and on his own, and you both need to be willing to set aside egos and listen and get a realistic understanding of whether the person on the other side of the negotiating table can reach an agreement with you that upholds your principles without compromising his own. Now, what I have laid out might not sound that unusual or rare, but it is actually pretty tough to find these days. I have been very lucky that the Senator whom we honor today on the floor--my colleague and friend, Chairman Lamar Alexander, of Tennessee--is someone who has managed it time and again. I don't think anyone, least of all Senator Alexander himself, would be surprised to hear me say that we are as likely to disagree as to agree on many matters. I bring my Washington State values to the table, and he brings his Tennessee values, so you can imagine how that has gone from time to time. Yet, despite our different perspectives and our different approaches we take to policymaking, we have also been able to see where our values and the interests of our States and our country converge. We both understood that the broken No Child Left Behind law needed to be fixed.…”