Senate Culture Quotes

Although the Senate is much given to admiring in its members a superiority less obvious or quite invisible to outsiders, one Senator seldom proclaims his own inferiority to another, and still more seldom likes to be told of it.

My first meeting as a senator, my first day, they were already talking about the next election. Part of that's the permanent campaign, part of that's a word I've been using more frequently, 'tribal.' Our politics has become tribal: It's us versus them.

While it's true that Washington would benefit from more civility, the Senate, behind the scenes, is an extraordinarily collegial institution.

The Senate is the last primitive society in the world. We still worship the elders of the tribe and honor the territorial imperative.

I was advised by my assistant that the women of the Senate don't do potlucks. To which I responded, 'Of course we do.'

The Senate has a reputation as quite a collegial place, and I have found that to be true, especially with the women.

Pat Moynihan wrote more books than most of his colleagues in the senate ever read.

The Senate is, in a way, the last primitive society in the world. As civilization progresses we honor all the ancient principals of seniority and respect for our elders and occupancy. Territorial imperative runs very strongly in the Senate. And our ultimate test is a trial by ordeal—which we practice in the filibuster.