Dennis Hastert Quotes

I was no party man myself, and the first wish of my heart was, if parties did exist, to reconcile them.

In the United States, as elsewhere, there are, and have always been, two parties in politics ... It is remarkable how nearly their positive statements of political doctrine agree, while they differ in almost every possible application of their common principles.

So what if I don't agree with the Democrats? What's to disagree with? They believe everything. And what they don't believe, the Republicans do. Neither of them stands for anything they believe in, anyway.

Excessive partisanship is the problem. There has never been a democracy in the history of the world in a polity of any size where you didn't have political parties. Even sometimes over the objections of the people who started it.

The only bipartisan place in D.C. is Brooks Brothers.

While I have worked hard to bring folks to the middle to craft common-sense solutions to the many problems that confront our nation, Washington is mired in gridlock, gamesmanship and constant partisan bickering.

The country has sorted itself ideologically into the two political parties, and those partisan attachments have hardened in recent years. It will take an extraordinary event and act of leadership to break this partisan divide. I thought 9/11 might provide such an opportunity, but it was not seized.

So the - the part of the problem is not just the rhetoric. It's the fact that we - we're so polarized in what we've done to each other as parties over the last thirty years in redistricting that it's very, very hard to overcome your own constituencies and move to the middle.

One difficulty in making the Senate work the way it was intended is that America's electorate is increasingly divided into red and blue states, with lawmakers representing just one color or the other.

When Democrats lose, they're pathetic. When Republicans lose, they're bitter and mean.

You see, to me, it doesn't really matter if an elected official has a D or an R behind her name, or his name. I honestly don't give a damn about who belongs to either political party.

Whenever a fellow tells me he's bipartisan, I know he's going to vote against me.

Like most Americans, I feel disgusted when we see people make decisions based on party politics rather than a solution that is best for the country.

I don’t chose my friends and associates on the basis of political party. The Senate has become altogether too nasty.

Our two-party system has served us well over the years, but never better than in those times of great challenge when we came together not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans united in a common cause.

There are some in Congress who would rather see their opponents lose than see their country win. That has got to stop…. They must find a way to put country ahead of party.

The House Republicans are not the enemy, they’re the opposition. The Senate is the enemy.

I am basically a supporter of Barack Obama - it is not easy to be a post-partisan president in a hyper-partisan era.

It's very easy to unite a party around opposition or wanting to get the White House back. That's a unifying message, and you're seeing the Democrats uniting around being the party of 'no' and the party of 'resist.'

The Republican Party is the party of national security. There's hardly a national security wing of the Democratic Party anymore. So if we turn away from it, that'll be a big problem.

The Democratic and Republican parties, two apparently distinct political entities feeding at the same corporate trough.

I think somebody that got along with the Democrats could change instantaneously. But the level of animosity... You know, in the old days "across the aisle" wasn't the worst thing. People got along. Today, the level of hatred, the level of anger is high.

Today, you're a piranha if you are seen having coffee with somebody from the other party in many cases.

I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally.

There are no moderate Republicans left, with the exception of a few who would vote with us when it doesn’t make any difference,” Frank said. “It’s the most rigid ideological party since before the Civil War. … The bumper sticker I’m going to have printed up for Democrats this year is, ‘We’re not perfect, but they’re nuts.’