73 quotes found
"One of the basic causes for all the trouble in the world today is that people talk too much and think too little. They act too impulsively without thinking. I am not advocating in the slightest that we become mutes with our voices stilled because of fear of criticism of what we might say. That is moral cowardice. And moral cowardice that keeps us from speaking our minds is as dangerous to this country as irresponsible talk. The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character. The importance of individual thinking to the preservation of our democracy and our freedom cannot be overemphasized. The broader sense of the concept of your role in the defense of democracy is that of the citizen doing his most for the preservation of democracy and peace by independent thinking, making that thinking articulate by translating it into action at the ballot boxes, in the forums, and in everyday life, and being constructive and positive in that thinking and articulation. The most precious thing that democracy gives to us is freedom. You and I cannot escape the fact that the ultimate responsibility for freedom is personal. Our freedoms today are not so much in danger because people are consciously trying to take them away from us as they are in danger because we forget to use them. Freedom unexercised may be freedom forfeited. The preservation of freedom is in the hands of the people themselves — not of the government."
"My creed is that public service must be more than doing a job efficiently and honestly. It must be a complete dedication to the people and to the nation with full recognition that every human being is entitled to courtesy and consideration, that constructive criticism is not only to be expected but sought, that smears are not only to be expected but fought, that honor is to be earned but not bought."
"I am running against no one. I'd like to be President. I think my experience and my record are greater than any other candidate or any other of the unannounced candidates. It's a real challenge, and that's one of the paramount things. When people keep telling you that you can't do a thing, you kind of like to try it."
"We should not permit tolerance to degenerate into indifference."
"Strength, the American way, is not manifested by threats of criminal prosecution or police state methods. Leadership is not manifested by coercion, even against the resented. Greatness is not manifested by unlimited pragmatism, which places such a high premium on the end justifying any means and any methods."
"My basic rule is to speak slowly and simply so that my audience has an opportunity to follow and think about what I am saying."
"I speak as briefly as possible because too much harm has already been done with irresponsible words of bitterness and selfish political opportunism. I speak as simply as possible because the issue is too great to be obscured by eloquence. I speak simply and briefly in the hope that my words will be taken to heart. I speak as a Republican. I speak as a woman. I speak as a United States Senator. I speak as an American."
"The United States Senate has long enjoyed worldwide respect as the greatest deliberative body in the world. But recently that deliberative character has too often been debased to the level of a forum of hate and character assassination sheltered by the shield of congressional immunity. It is ironical that we Senators can in debate in the Senate directly or indirectly, by any form of words, impute to any American who is not a Senator any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming an American — and without that non-Senator American having any legal redress against us — yet if we say the same thing in the Senate about our colleagues we can be stopped on the grounds of being out of order. It is strange that we can verbally attack anyone else without restraint and with full protection and yet we hold ourselves above the same type of criticism here on the Senate Floor. Surely the United States Senate is big enough to take self-criticism and self-appraisal. Surely we should be able to take the same kind of character attacks that we "dish out" to outsiders."
"I think that it is high time for the United States Senate and its members to do some soul-searching — for us to weigh our consciences — on the manner in which we are performing our duty to the people of America — on the manner in which we are using or abusing our individual powers and privileges. I think that it is high time that we remembered that we have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution. I think that it is high time that we remembered that the Constitution, as amended, speaks not only of the freedom of speech but also of trial by jury instead of trial by accusation. Whether it be a criminal prosecution in court or a character prosecution in the Senate, there is little practical distinction when the life of a person has been ruined."
"Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism in making character assassinations are all too frequently those who, by our own words and acts, ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism:"
"The American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds lest they be politically smeared as "Communists" or "Fascists" by their opponents. Freedom of speech is not what it used to be in America. It has been so abused by some that it is not exercised by others. The American people are sick and tired of seeing innocent people smeared and guilty people whitewashed."
"Today our country is being psychologically divided by the confusion and the suspicions that are bred in the United States Senate to spread like cancerous tentacles of "know nothing, suspect everything" attitudes. Today we have a Democratic Administration that has developed a mania for loose spending and loose programs. History is repeating itself — and the Republican Party again has the opportunity to emerge as the champion of unity and prudence."
"Surely these are sufficient reasons to make it clear to the American people that it is time for a change and that a Republican victory is necessary to the security of this country. Surely it is clear that this nation will continue to suffer as long as it is governed by the present ineffective Democratic Administration. Yet to displace it with a Republican regime embracing a philosophy that lacks political integrity or intellectual honesty would prove equally disastrous to this nation. The nation sorely needs a Republican victory. But I don't want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny — Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear."
"I don't believe the American people will uphold any political party that puts political exploitation above national interest. Surely we Republicans aren't that desperate for victory. I don't want to see the Republican party win that way. While it might be a fleeting victory for the Republican Party, it would be a more lasting defeat for the American people."
"As a United States Senator, I am not proud of the way in which the Senate has been made a publicity platform for irresponsible sensationalism. I am not proud of the reckless abandon in which unproved charges have been hurled from this side of the aisle. I am not proud of the obviously staged, undignified countercharges that have been attempted in retaliation from the other side of the aisle. I don't like the way the Senate has been made a rendezvous for vilification, for selfish political gain at the sacrifice of individual reputations and national unity."
"As an American, I condemn a Republican "Fascist" just as much as I condemn a Democrat "Communist." I condemn a Democrat "Fascist" just as much as I condemn a Republican "Communist." They are equally dangerous to you and me and to our country. As an American, I want to see our nation recapture the strength and unity it once had when we fought the enemy instead of ourselves."
"We are Republicans. But we are Americans first. It is as Americans that we express our concern with the growing confusion that threatens the security and stability of our country."
"Senator Margaret Chase Smith, the so-called Quiet Woman from Maine, is neither tongue-tied nor coy; instead she likes to pick her shots, believing that "a statement does not have real meaning and validity unless I am moved to make it, rather than prodded by someone else." This must be one of those moments, for here Mrs. Smith is positively gabby, chirping away about the high points of her political career like any other lawmaker up for reelection this November."
"Mrs. Smith said her life in politics was her only life. "I have no family, no time-consuming hobbies," she said late in her Senate career. "I have only myself and my job as United States Senator." But she also had a sense of humor. In 1952, when asked by a reporter what she would do if she woke up one morning and found herself in the White House, she replied: "I'd go straight to Mrs. Truman and apologize. Then I'd go home.""
"Last week Maggie Smith, 66, confessed before the National Women's Press Club in Washington that she has no money, no time to campaign and no organization to speak of. There upon she announced saucily that she is going to run for the G.O.P. presidential nomination just the same. Stickler. Many people shrug off the lady Senator's declaration as something frivolously feminine. They don't know Maggie. Feminine she is, but not frivolous."
"I think so much depends on what happens in the next six months. If the president is determined to go ahead with this plan, and he appears to be determined, I hope it works—for our country, for Iraq, for our soldiers. I hope that I prove to be as wrong as I’ve ever been in my life."
"We saw, on 6 January 2021, how ambiguities, simple law, were exploited. We need to prevent that from happening again. I’m hopeful that we can come up with a bipartisan bill that will make very clear that the vice-president’s role is simply ministerial, that he has no ability to halt the count"
"Roe. Judge Kavanaugh is the first Supreme Court nominee to express the view that precedent is not merely a practice and tradition, but rooted in Article 3 of our Constitution itself. He believes that precedent is not just a judicial policy, it is constitutionally dictated to pay attention and pay heed to rules of precedent. In other words, precedent isn’t a goal or an aspiration. It is a constitutional tenet that has to be followed except in the most extraordinary circumstances. The judge further explained that precedent provides stability, predictability, reliance and fairness."
"The country owes Senator Susan Collins, of Maine, a big vote of thanks. Absent her steadfastness over the past few months, the G.O.P. might have succeeded in blowing up Obamacare. If that had happened, many millions of Americans would now be facing the possibility of losing their health-insurance coverage, while countless seniors and sick people would be on the hook to pay much higher insurance premiums."
"Contrary to the suspicions of some people on the right, Collins isn’t a closet Democrat. She voted to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, and for all but two of Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees. In 2010, she voted against the A.C.A.; in 2011 and 2015, she voted to repeal it. On many occasions, she has criticized the 2010 reform for offering Americans limited choices and high premiums and deductibles. But, unlike most of her G.O.P. colleagues, Collins has also defied the Party line and recognized some of the good that Obamacare has done."
"In a party that was less ideological and less dominated by rich, right-wing donors than today’s G.O.P., all of these points would be regarded as uncontroversial. According to a new CBS News poll, just twenty per cent of Americans approve of the Graham-Cassidy bill, and the earlier G.O.P. repeal proposals were just as unpopular. But, despite its chronic lack of public support, the G.O.P.’s effort to sabotage the health-care system came within a few votes of succeeding in the Senate. For now, at least, it appears to be dead. On Tuesday afternoon, Republican leaders reportedly agreed not to hold a vote on the Graham-Cassidy bill. If this really is the end of the effort to repeal Obamacare, a few Republicans of character will have played a key role. And history will recall that Susan Collins was in the vanguard."
"I appreciated the instances when members from the other side of the aisle supported HUD's work, crossing partisan lines. Mario Diaz-Balart and Susan Collins were two Republicans who helped maximize HUD's impact on people in need."
"Collins voted for the GOP tax scam."
"Senator Collins has tested positive for COVID-19 and is currently experiencing mild symptoms. The Senator will isolate and work remotely in accordance with CDC guidelines"
"Together, these two relatively centrist Republicans controlled the fate of Kavanaugh’s nomination—which had looked assured until a few weeks ago, when several women came forward to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. (Kavanaugh has denied the allegations.) How did these two lawmakers, who have at times been treated as a pair on high-stakes votes, reach contrary ends?"
"In this case, though, Collins chose not to listen to a survivor—or, more exactly, she found reasons not to listen. Murkowski felt differently. After her vote on Friday morning, she told reporters that she was on her way back to her office to work on a floor statement about her decision. Last month, a reporter asked Murkowski if she had ever had a #MeToo moment. Murkowski answered yes, but did not elaborate."
"Madam President, January 22, 1997, Senator Collins cast her first roll call vote for Madeleine Albright to be Secretary of State. From that moment on, she has not missed one single, solitary vote; zero sick days, zero scheduling conflicts. Whether we were voting on war or peace, historic legislation, or the most routine and uncontroversial bills and nominations, the Senator has made sure that Maine got its say every single time. So here is some perspective. The longest consecutive games streak in Major League Baseball famously belonged to Cal Ripken, Jr. Well, our colleague from Caribou has lapped him three times and counting. And, by the way, the Iron Horse didn't have to plan around weekly air travel in and out of New England, all winter, every winter. Anybody who knows Senator Collins knows this moment is not really about a round number; it is about the approach which the number happens to reflect. Our colleague is diligent. She is devoted. Her level of preparation is unparalleled. She holds herself to the highest standards, and she delivers. It is in her blood. Both of our colleague's parents served separate terms as mayor of Caribou. But the Senator also draws inspiration from outside the gene pool. She rightly idolizes her predecessor from Maine, the legendary Margaret Chase Smith, but even Senator Smith's own impressive voting streak topped out just shy of 3,000. I am just sorry that today's milestone moment couldn't present our colleague with a challenge worthy of her skills. Lucky number 8,000 didn't even require a sprained ankle or a hasty exit from a departing airplane. So congratulations to our colleague on this moment and all that it represents."
"The fact that after millions of people across the country cast their votes that our political system is basically controlled by Joe Manchin of WV and Susan Collins of Maine makes no fucking sense."
"We are now entering upon an important period of our development as a State. Our infancy as a Territorial Government has passed into history. Our early struggle as a young State of the Union has already turned the point of successful trial,and we now stand in the threshold of coming strength and power. With a territory ranking among the largest of the sisterhood, with a soil equal to the best, and a climate of a salubrity and healthfulness enjoyed by none other,with resources for the employment of industry of great variety and extent, it would seem difficult to predict for Oregon anything short of a most successful career. In fact, with a creditable management of public affairs, nothing stands in the way of our prosperity."
"It's not healthy for the country to have parties with polar opposite views without that bridge that you need to build consensus."
"Ultimately, we're heading to having the smallest political tent in history, the way events have been unfolding. If the Republican Party fully intends to become a majority party in the future, it must move from the far right back toward the middle."
"I do find it frustrating … that an atmosphere of polarization and "my way or the highway" ideologies has become pervasive in campaigns and in our governing institutions. With my Spartan ancestry I am a fighter at heart; and I am well prepared for the electoral battle, so that is not the issue. However, what I have had to consider is how productive an additional term would be. Unfortunately, I do not realistically expect the partisanship of recent years in the Senate to change over the short term. So at this stage of my tenure in public service, I have concluded that I am not prepared to commit myself to an additional six years in the Senate, which is what a fourth term would entail. As I enter a new chapter, I see a vital need for the political center in order for our democracy to flourish and to find solutions that unite rather than divide us. It is time for change in the way we govern, and I believe there are unique opportunities to build support for that change from outside the United States Senate. I intend to help give voice to my fellow citizens who believe, as I do, that we must return to an era of civility in government driven by a common purpose to fulfill the promise that is unique to America."
"What are our obligations to the country and to the people we represent? It's the coming up with effective solutions, sitting down and working with the issues. Sitting around table and sorting through the differences. You can never solve a problem without talking to people with whom you disagree. The United States Senate is predicated and based on consensus building. That was certainly the vision of the founding fathers. And if we abandon that approach, then we do it at the expense of the country and the issues that we need to address to put us back on track."
"We are not working out issues anymore. We are working on a parallel universe, with competing proposals, up or down votes."
"I understand that the hyper-partisanship in Washington makes people feel alienated. They're frustrated and they're angry, and they should be, but they can do something about it. We've got to turn it around. I'm concerned it's going to become institutionalized. … Make candidates accountable for making government work. That should be a debate question: What are you going to do to make government work? You can't sit on your hands and say, "No, I want it 100% my way." I don't know how this evolved, but I find it irrational — you don't demand that in any other sphere of life. The country is now in a virtual standstill. We can't begin to measure the reverberation of all this legislative neglect five, six, or whatever years into the future."
"Snowe is one of the few remaining moderate Republicans, a group that once dominated the Northeast and vied for control of the national Republicans under leaders such as Nelson Rockefeller. She was instrumental in forcing President George W. Bush to limit the size of his 2001 tax cut. She was one of three Senate Republicans who backed President Barack Obama's 2009 stimulus plan. But Snowe found it increasingly difficult to reach across party lines that kept moving further apart."
"I think I can honestly say that if Olympia had announced her retirement because of ill health or to spend more time with Jock I probably wouldn't have run. … What perked me up is why she is leaving. Olympia has 30 years of seniority, she's likable, she works very hard, and if she can't make it work, nobody in either party is going to make it work."
"You know what’s laughable about the Republicans panicking over the fact that Olympia Snowe retiring means that we might lose the Senate? As far as I’m concerned, with her in it, we never had it. That’s been the problem. With Olympia Snowe in the Senate as a Republican, we’ve never had the Senate as Republicans … She didn’t vote with Republicans; she didn’t vote with conservatives. This is no great loss."
"Senator Snowe's career demonstrates how much can be accomplished when leaders from both parties come together to do the right thing for the American people."
"Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe's decision to retire from the Senate caused a scramble Wednesday among potential Democratic and Republican candidates just two weeks before a deadline to qualify for the June primary ballot. … Former independent Gov. Angus King and former independent gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler also were weighing runs. … Cutler, for his part, is a former Democrat but he told The Associated Press that if he runs, he'd do it as an independent. Also considering a bid was King, another independent. He said he'll decide within a few days even though independents aren't bound by the March 15 deadline. "I'm giving it some thought for the very reason that Olympia quit. It's just not working down there and maybe we need to try something different," King said Wednesday. "We have serious problems in this country but we can't begin to solve them until we solve this shrill deadlock.""
"One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils of the world can be cured by legislation."
"How to dodge a bicycle"
"Russell, you do not understand the theory of the five minute debate. The object is to convey to the House in the space of five minutes either information or disinformation. You have consumed several periods of five minutes this afternoon without doing either."
"is forcing the American people to buy health insurance or else pay a tax. Our health care system is moving toward one that rations care and negatively impact millions of Americans."
"The Holocaust was a horrific crime against humanity and frankly, I would never want to see that repeated, maybe the IRS is not quite as bad — yet. ... They're headed in that direction."
"We the people have been told there is no choice. You must buy or pay the new — the IRS."
"I apologize to Jewish Americans if they feel offended. But I also apologize to that were put in prison during World War II, and I also apologize to those people that were accused of being communists during McCarthyism, because that's not the American way."
"I'd like to shoot him."
"These aren't the people who take drugs, these are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty. These type of guys. They come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, then they go back home. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young white girl before they leave, which is a real sad thing because then we have another issue we've got to deal with down the road."
"My brain was slower than my mouth."
"I have a heart. I have a heart for Maine people."
"It's hard to hear what they're saying. Have you ever tried to say, 'What's the special today?' to somebody from Bulgaria? And the worst ones — if they're from India. I mean, they're all lovely people, but you gotta have an interpreter. Or how many of you try to return something on Amazon on a telephone?"
"There's the all mighty powerful ones like Mr. Khan — which is a con artist himself, and he uses the death of his son, who's an American soldier, which we respect and honor, and he uses that to go after Trump, which I found very distasteful."
"You know and I know and everybody in the state knows that the overwhelming majority of the people that have been arrested this year, coming out of Connecticut and New York, have been black and Hispanic, it's not a matter of race, it's a matter of fact. Are there some white ones? Yes, there are some white people."
"Mr. Gattine, this is Governor Paul Richard LePage. I would like to talk to you about your comments about my being a racist, you cocksucker. And you—I wanna talk to you. You wan—I want you to prove that I'm a racist. I've spent my life helping black people, and you little son-of-a-bitch socialist cocksucker. You—I need you to—just frickin'—I want you to record this and make it public, because I'm after you. Thank you."
"Look, the bad guy is the bad guy, I don't care what color he is, when you go to war, if you know the enemy and the enemy dresses in red and you dress in blue, then you shoot at red. ... You shoot at the enemy. You try to identify the enemy and the enemy right now, the overwhelming majority of people coming in, are people of color or people of Hispanic origin."
"It's really one thing to have one party behind you, it's another thing not to have any party behind you."
"The governor shouldn’t be making those comments, even though I know he doesn’t care for my stuff because I pick on him quite a bit in my cartoon, but it’s always within the boundaries of fairness and free speech and satire."
"In a real sense, the new “get tough on opioids” policies have been fueled by the mistaken perception that most illegal opioid dealers are black or Latino. Consider the remarks made by then Maine governor Paul LePage at a town hall forum in 2016. The governor reassured attendees that his beef was not with Mainers who merely “take drugs.” Bear in mind that Maine is the whitest state in the union. His outrage, LePage said, was aimed squarely at out-of-state drug dealers: “Guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty . . . they come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, they go back home.” But, LePage warned, before these packs of mythical drug pushers head home, they usually “impregnate a young white girl.”"
"Jokes about shooting someone aren’t funny. Shooting cartoonists especially, post-Charlie Hedbo. It was shocking and tasteless."
"This year, my Friend, is big with mighty events. Nothing less than the fate of America depends on the virtue of her sons, and if they do not have virtue enough to support the most Glorious Cause ever human beings were engaged in, they don’t deserve the blessings of freedom."
"A recommendation is gone thither for raising some regiments of Blacks. This, I suppose will lay a foundation for the emancipation of those wretches in that country. I hope it will be the means of dispensing the blessings of Freedom to all the human race in America."
"I'm not looking to be defined as someone that is there in opposition, but rather someone that's there serious about doing the job and doing the work. It's a piece of paper. I could care less about it."
"It's the vote that is meaningful, in terms of sticking to your guns and standing by your principles, and I'm gonna stand by the fact that I think it's time to pass a torch to a new leadership team in our party"
"Many of my colleagues argue this major line item is worth accepting to pass the rest of the bill. I disagree: the SALT giveaway in the Build Back Better Act is larger than the child care, pre-K, healthcare or senior care provisions of the bill."
"I conclude… that the record establishes that Mr. Trump, over the course of several months and culminating on January 6, 2021, used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters and direct them to the Capitol to prevent certification of the 2020 election and the peaceful transfer of power. I likewise conclude that Mr. Trump was aware of the likelihood for violence and at least initially supported its use given he both encouraged it with incendiary rhetoric and took no timely action to stop it. Mr. Trump’s occasional requests that rioters be peaceful and support law enforcement do not immunize his actions. A brief call to obey the law does not erase conduct over the course of months, culminating in his speech on the Ellipse. The weight of the evidence makes clear that Mr. Trump was aware of the tinder laid by his multi-month effort to delegitimize a democratic election, and then chose to light a match."
"I do not reach this conclusion lightly. Democracy is sacred… I am mindful that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection. The oath I swore to uphold the Constitution comes first above all, and my duty under Maine’s election laws, when presented with a Section 336 challenge, is to ensure that candidates who appear on the primary ballot are qualified for the office they seek."
"The events of January 6, 2021 were unprecedented and tragic. They were an attack not only upon the Capitol and government officials, but also an attack on the rule of law. The evidence here demonstrates that they occurred at the behest of, and with the knowledge and support of, the outgoing President. The U.S. Constitution does not tolerate an assault on the foundations of our government, and Section 336 requires me to act in response."