Kirsten Gillibrand Quotes

I will not be making appointments to a committee that is not bipartisan.

I was never a fan of Barack Obama's bipartisanship routine.

And, you know, I watched him in Texas where he stood on his principle but he also reached out to members of the other party to try to work with them, to try to forge agreement where he could in keeping with his conservative principles to make Texas a better place.

I was entirely comfortable reaching across the Senate aisle to work with Democrats.

My Republican compatriots do not feel that people ought to work with Democrats across the aisle—Compromise is a bad word.

Governing in a polarized society means, making bipartisan deals.

I worked for President Bush and President Obama. I had Democratic bosses and Republican bosses. I believe in order to actually get things done, we do need to buckle down and often reach across the aisle.

The only bipartisan place in D.C. is Brooks Brothers.

If I don't get along with Democrats, I'm sort of, like, out of business.

When Kennedy could not get the civil rights bill passed - and he was the big liberal - Lyndon Johnson came in and it got passed, and he was the conservative and the southerner. So sometimes in politics, to get something done, it takes a special kind of knowledge and a special kind of person, but it doesn't always follow the party lines.

I've decided to cut out the part of the speech where I say anything nice about Democrats.

We've been sitting at the compromise table for a long time. We're just waiting for that cold chair to be warmed up by the Republican leadership. They still have time to do the right thing and be responsible. They just seem to be moving further and further away from it.

In the first weeks of the Obama administration, 'bipartisanship' was the reigning buzzword, and when the Beltway thinks 'bipartisan,' it pictures President Reagan and Democratic Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill putting aside their differences and forging a legislative partnership, a ruddy pair of genial patriarchs bonding over the Blarney Stone.

One of the main reasons America should re-elect President Obama is that he is still committed to cooperation. He appointed Republican Secretaries of Defense, the Army and Transportation. He appointed a Vice President who ran against him in 2008.

Our two-party system has served us well over the years, but never better than in those times of great challenge when we came together not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans united in a common cause.

How to Turn Democrats & Republicans Into Americans

The middle in Congress is gone now. That is where we got most things done.

Gingrich, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, and Clinton passed legislation because they understood and appreciated the difficult political process. They fought for their principles yet recognized the need for compromise to get anything done.

I have a long, long record of working with Democrats and Republicans alike.

Senators, representatives too often, we hear from our base, don't talk to the other side, don't with work with them.

When I first came to the Senate, people in both parties went out of their way to have personal relationships.

I've never done any cross-party stuff. I've no interest in sitting down discussing pensions or whatever with Tories.

I'm an Obama supporter, no question. But it doesn't mean there's nothing to learn from the other side.

Virginians want you to work across the aisle.

Nevada is a little different than most states. We only meet every other year in the legislature. So it's very important to have good relationships on both sides of the aisle... I have to have those relationships.