Ed Koch Quotes

It is possible for political forces to agree.

Bipartisanship is like marriage. It takes two to make it work. It only takes one to make it a failure. The President has been playing politics with foreign policy.

Moderation and bipartisan consensus go hand in hand.

Politics and more politics - that's how you work towards the building of agreements.

The one thing I'm convinced George W. Bush is good at is bipartisanship. It's clearly something he enjoys personally.

I sure tried to help deliver compromise, consensus, bipartisanship.

I'm going to work with Republicans when they do things I agree with and I'm going to fight Republicans when they're doing things that I think are damaging.

Goodness knows, we have horrible problems to face in this Congress. I hope we can face them as colleagues in working unitedly for the people of this country and certainly not indulging in animosity or referring to each other as ''enemies.''

Bipartisanship means you work together to work it out.

The Republicans Are Coming: Make Nice!

I think with the right leadership on both sides and the right president, we can get a lot done.

I have long-since said that working... together and accomplishing things in a bipartisan way doesn't mean compromising your values.

What Lincoln did is he gathered people around him the way that I believe President Obama is doing by calling Republicans, talking to them, trying to work with them. And when that happens, big things get solved.

Everybody in the world has to compromise. I don't know one person that gets everything they want, so the politicians are going to have to figure that out and stop pointing out, "He shook hands with a Democrat in 1989. He ate with a Republican last week." It's petty high school, even junior high stuff going on. It's junior high politics going on, so it's a shame.

Bipartisanship is nice, but it cannot be a substitute for action, not having it cannot prevent us from going forward.

We have to find compromises. That's the way it is in Norway.

I did look for compromise. I worked in a bipartisan way.

But if we can work with people in other parties to get the right answer for the country we'll do that.

Politics is compromise.

I hear from everybody, and they say 'Joe, nowhere but in Washington do they think not working together makes sense.' We're not hired to fight.

I haven't given up on working... across the aisle on issues and maybe it'll take an election or two for that to fully ferment, maybe it you know sometimes it takes awhile for people to realize what the best path is.

Presidents should do whatever possible and practical to encourage an environment of cooperation and bipartisanship. And they should maintain a certain level of decorum, diplomacy and decency. But, at the end of the day, presidents get elected to enact change.

I think if you're going to get anything done in the Senate, you have to be on the same sheet of music. If you don't get people on the same sheet of music it comes out pretty horrible.

I'm a believer in bipartisanship.

We aren't as divided as we think we are. We're not just Republicans sitting in one corner, and Democrats sitting in the other corner.