Senator Quotes
More Senator Quotes
If Senator Reid had come to me and said, 'This is a problem,' which he never did, I would have said, 'Let's talk about it.' I would have said, 'Let's bring in the Intelligence Committee or the leaders, and let's talk about it in a civil, a dignified, a respectful way.'
bill frist— Senate Goes Into Rare Closed Session, Fox News, November 1, 2005.
On John Edwards, U.S. Senator from North Carolina: "The stump speech of pretty-boy Senator John Edwards, which I've heard often enough to be able to mouth along with him, has room for everything, including vivid, wrenching portraits of despair: 'Tonight somewhere in America a ten-year-old little girl will go to bed hungry, hoping and praying that tomorrow will not be as cold as today because she doesn't have the coat to keep her warm.' You'd have to have a heart of stone not to be doubled up in laughter at that line.
mark steyn— "It's the war, stupid", 1 March 2004
You may have noticed that Senator Obama's supporters have been saying some pretty nasty things about western Pennsylvania lately. And you know, I couldn't agree with them more.
john mccain— Said in a speech near Kansas City, Missouri, October 20, 2008.[45]
There's nothing noble or selfless about politicians and there never has been. Putting it charitably, Profiles in Courage is a compendium of Democratic mythology, ghostwritten for an ambitious young Massachusetts Senator who never did a thing for himself if he could pay to have it done by others.
l. neil smith— "Pursuing Invariably the Same Object"[37] 18 April 2010
Long before Savage successfully campaigned to turn anti-gay Senator Rick Santorum's last name into a hilariously insulting noun, Landers laid the groundwork for such subversive political activism.
— Sullivan, Catey (June 5, 2008). "No question: 'Answer lady' is utterly perfect". The Antioch Review (Pioneer Press).
I am a free man, an American, a United States Senator, and a Democrat, in that order.
lyndon b. johnson— 1958 Texas Quarterly, winter issue.
It isn't just dust that is settling in Korea, Senator, it is American blood.
Douglas MacArthur— 1951 During the Senate inquiry on Mac Arthur's dismissal. Reported in the NewYork Times, 2 May.
No man, however strong, can serve ten years as schoolmaster, priest, or Senator, and remain fit for anything else. All the dogmatic stations in life have the effect of fixing a certain stiffness of attitude forever, as though they mesmerised the subject.
henry adams— Ch. 7. (The Education of Henry Adams (1907))
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.
henry adams— Ch. 7. (The Education of Henry Adams (1907))
No man is fit to be a Senator... unless he is willing to surrender his political life for great principle.
henry fountain ashurst— "Ashurst, Defeated, Reviews Service". New York Times (September 12, 1940), p. 18.
Senator, some of us strongly believe that Americans are the last people that can go around the world preaching morality. What we are doing to the blacks in Africa today is what you have already done and continue to do to the American Indian.
pik botha— To Senator Ted Kennedy
— Quoted in The Namibian newspaper, 27 Apr 2011[1]
Could we possibly have a nominee who hasn't won any of the significant states -- outside of Illinois? That raises some serious questions about Senator Obama.
mark penn— [3]
The Senator from Wisconsin cannot frighten me by exclaiming, "My country, right or wrong." In one sense I say so too. My country; and my country is the great American Republic. My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.
carl schurz— Remarks in the Senate (29 February 1872) He was here responding to the famous slogan derived from a statement of Stephen Decatur: "Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong."
[On Senator Jesse Helms] I think he ought to be worried about what's going on in the Good Lord's mind, because if there is retributive justice, he'll get AIDS from a transfusion, or one of his grandchildren will.
nina totenberg— Inside Washington, PBS, July 8, 1995. [1]
— Quoted in "Hate speech of the left" by Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe, December 28, 2003. [2]
Senator Barkley and I will win this election and make these Republicans like it — don't forget that! We will do that because they are wrong and we are right, and I will prove it to you in just a few minutes.
harry s. truman— Address to the Democratic National Convention (15 July 1948); this has often been paraphrased as: "They are wrong and we are right and I'm going to prove it to you!"
Senator Kerry says he sees two Americas. And that makes the whole thing mutual America sees two John Kerrys.
dick cheney— Acceptance Speech at the Republican National Convention. September 1, 2004, - Video and text available.
I am sure that Senator Clinton would make a good President. I happen to be a Republican and would support, obviously, a Republican nominee, but I have no doubt that Senator Clinton would make a good President.
john mccain— Meet the Press (20 February 2005)
Like environmentalists, politicians generally privilege flora and fauna over folks. (NIMBYs excepted. Senator Edward Kennedy is a not-in-my-backyard environmentalist: he opposes wind farms in Nantucket Sound, offshore from his Hyannis Port compound.)
ilana mercer— "In Defense of the Fence,"WorldNetDaily.com, April 4, 2008.
If Senator Kennedy is elected President of the United States, the government of Chile will take the necessary measures.
augusto pinochet— Speech (11 September 1979), quoted in "Las frases para el bronce de Pinochet."
I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation coming into the world onto the world stage, onto the American stage, and for that reason I'll be voting for Senator Barack Obama.
colin powell— Meet the Press (19 October 2008)
Senator Vrooman (Ambrose Bierce)
— Fictional future senator used as one of five examples under "Epitaph", from The Devil's Dictionary.
I'm sorry, m'lady... I'm... not sure I...I've failed you, Senator.
— Who: Cordé (handmaiden to Padmé Amidala)
— Source: Killed in an assassination attempt on Padmé. She was acting as a body double for Padmé when the ship she was on was blown up by Zam Wessel. Padmé was piloting one of the starfighters escorting the ship.
Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.
— Jamie Raskin, 2006-03-01
— Raskin was responding to state senator Nancy Jacobs at a hearing on a proposed Maryland constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage [2]. At the time, Raskin was himself a candidate for senate.
The Helena Independent Record, noted that "The Senator has drawn attention previously for his choice of words."
conrad burns— Feb 28, 2006
Robespierre listened to me with terror. He grew pale and silent for some time. This interview confirmed me in the opinion that I always had of him, that he unites the knowledge of a wise Senator with the integrity of a thoroughly good man and the zeal of a true patriot but that he is lacking as a statesman in clearness of vision and determination.
jean-paul marat— L'Ami du peuple, vol. 7, p. 3965
That’s what I like about you, Senator, you’re kicking it old-school.
russ feingold— Jon Stewart, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, 2005-03-23
The Wisconsin Senator gets up and says out loud what half of the country is thinking and talks about every day. This President broke the law and lied about it; he trashed the Constitution and hides himself in the flag.
russ feingold— William Greider The Nation, March 2006
Americans ought be listening to Russ Feingold in these defining days for the Republic, because what the Democratic Senator from Wisconsin is saying goes to the heart of the question of whether a nation founded in revolt against monarchy will be ruled by laws or by the crude whims of an intemperate sovereign and his out-of-control administration.
russ feingold— The Nation, Feb 12 2006
The day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, 'Senator, we ought to change the policy,' then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it.
john mccain— Speaking about Don't ask, don't tell, before students at Iowa State University — Shear, Michael D. (February 3, 2010). "McCain appears to shift on 'don't ask, don't tell'". The Washington Post (The Washington Post Company). Retrieved on 2010-10-28.
