Dick Durbin Quotes

One of the things I give Nancy Pelosi a lot of credit for is that she's able to get things passed and hold her members together because she shows us that she's doing everything possible to get our views into these bills.

It is the business of the President as party leader to do the best he can to see that the declared party platform purposes are translated into legislative and administrative action.

I'm not terribly focused on whether I even could ever become the Leader of the Liberal Party or the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party in the future.

I don't think we can go into important local elections next year... with Tony Blair as leader and expect to keep many of the councillors we've got now.

I didn't run for student council president. I don't see myself in any way in elected office. I love policy. I'm not particularly fond of politics.

[Warren] Harding didn't like being a Senator; he liked being in the Senate.

I've served under six Speakers of the House and each of them has had difficulty in administering the House.

On those rare occasions when successful [political] reform organizations have been welded together they have developed techniques of political astuteness, leadership and discipline not unlike political machines.

As a new member (of Parliament) you will also be instructed in the details of what is expected from you as a backbencher…. It will be made clear to you that your role in the decision-making process is to raise your hand when you are told to and to occupy your seat in the house when it is required.

A significant disadvantage of the present system is that there is no direct relationship between the elected members and the electors … the member is only responsible to the party leadership or, worse still, to the party bureaucracy

Believing as I do in political parties, I had rather that the party ... should, in its conferences, make a declaration than to assume a leadership or take an individual position on the question.

The leaders of a party, or those who are so called, have but little sway over their followers, particularly when not in Government, and when they have it not in their power to threaten them with any very serious consequences

I did it in my capacity as president of the Senate.

I certainly want to be the whip, and that's an election every two years in the Senate Democratic caucus.

I would advise Donald Trump to try to bring and unify this party together.

Mofaz was elected to head Kadima since the party had been shattered.

I love representing Minnesota in the Senate.

Our MPs will take decisions on how they're voting on a day-to-day basis. But I'm the leader of the party, and in terms of our overall strategy and how we vote on key issues, then ultimately, those decisions will be mine.

The role of the speaker of the House is to deliver enough votes by understanding and accommodating the individual bottom lines of enough members to pass the bill.

Especially in the whip operation, you're in constant contact with the members and their chiefs of staff, so having a chief who's approachable and reaches out to other chiefs so people know what's going - know what they're looking for in the policy that comes to the House floor - is incredibly important.

I've never been an MP in government unfortunately and only know what it's like to be in opposition.

MPs are basically bonded labourers of their parties. And it is the party high command of each party, which takes decisions.

I have had the fortunate privilege of serving as a state representative for residents in the great cities of Detroit, River Rouge, and Ecorse.

If the party is a broad church, then it only has one priest. It was my job to keep it united and at the same time to ensure that I transform it into a modern liberal party.

Jacob Rees-Mogg gets his tummy tickled when the ERG threatens to vote against a government bill unless it is amended on policy.