Legislative Politics Quotes

Historically, the minority party in Congress votes against raising the debt limit, forcing the majority party to whip its members into casting politically painful votes in favor.

As they say around the Texas Legislature, if you can't drink their whiskey, screw their women, take their money, and vote against 'em anyway, you don't belong in office.

Our nation was founded on the pork barrel, and it has become great by political log-rolling.

You can't use tact with a Congressman! A Congressman is a hog! You must take a stick and hit him on the snout!

If Olympia Snow and I were talking together on the floor of the House, Newt Gingrich would send his boys over to tell her to get back to the Republican side of the aisle.

No one outside of the Black Caucus would be happy to see Alcee Hastings in a chairmanship. I first saw Alcee Hastings in his impeachment trial in the Senate.

Remember, whenever a Republican leaves one side of the aisle and goes to the other, it raises the intelligence quotient of both parties.

Speaking nothing of how we often fall short in keeping our promises, we frequently play an unnecessary game of politics with key issues - using must-pass legislation such as disaster relief as a vehicle to sweeten unrelated, contentious bills that may not otherwise pass as stand-alone measures.

I am guilty of asking the Senate for pork and proud of the Senate for giving it to me.

We mistake politics for legislative debate. You can be passionate without being personal.

The president who did the most for black Americans in 20th century history was Lyndon Johnson, and he got his hands dirty by dealing with Southern senators, Southern congressmen, horse trading with them, cajoling them, learning what not to talk about. And he got civil rights passed and Great Society programs. That should be the model. Get over yourself.

A lot of the Republicans wanted exactly what Barack Obama wanted, exactly what Nancy Pelosi wanted, exactly what Harry Reid wanted, which is to raise the debt ceiling, but they wanted to be able to tell what they view as their foolish, gullible constituents back home they didn't do it.

It's always easier in the Senate minority to maintain unity.

Mr. President, in carrying out my conscientious views I greatly regret that it is sometimes necessary for me to vote on the same side with the Senator from Louisiana [Huey P. Long]; but when I do so, I wish to assure the Senator from Louisiana that it makes me feel doubtful of my own position... The Senator is so generally wrong that I can hardly believe that he is right any time.

It took six weeks of debate in the Senate to get the Arms Embargo Law repealed--and we face other delays during the present session because most of the Members of the Congress are thinking in terms of next Autumn's election. However, that is one of the prices that we who live in democracies have to pay. It is, however, worth paying, if all of us can avoid the type of government under which the unfortunate population of Germany and Russia must exist.

The bill's a textbook example of special interest pork barrel politics at work, and I have no choice but to veto it.

The first pork-barrel bill that crosses my desk, I'm going to veto it and make the authors of those pork-barrel items famous all over America.

As a senator from the only true swing district in the Texas Senate, I've been targeted by the GOP for my outspoken criticism of their extremist attacks on public education and voting rights, to name just two examples.

I'm have one of the most, if not the most, moderate voting records in Congress in the Florida delegation.

I had taken on the color of the climate around me and had driven back all the emotion that rose from the Brooklyn streets so that I could belong to the exclusive club of Congress.

The Congressional leadership has to reflect the current feelings of their party caucus.

State legislators are becoming more like congressmen in that incumbents nearly always win.

I was ranked the second most conservative member in the House.

The political event of last week is the opposition of [Roscoe] Conkling to the New York appointments. This is a test case. The Senators generally prefer to confirm Merritt and Graham. But many, perhaps a majority, will not oppose Conkling on the question. Senatorial courtesy, the Senatorial prerogative, and the fear of Conkling's vengeance in the future, control them.

There's no doubt about it, earmarks are not very popular. There are good earmarks and bad earmarks. The good earmarks are the ones I get for my district.