Rob Portman Quotes

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.

I would like Obama to be tougher on going up against the Republicans, I don't think he should try to be so moderate.

Unlike the Reagan and Bush Administrations, with but one exception, the Clinton administration failed to reach out to Republicans in creating a new team, and eventually paid a political price.

I do hope that next year Republicans and Democrats will do nothing.

Have we come to the point where the Democratic Party needs a Republican President?

The middle in Congress is gone now. That is where we got most things done.

Obama tried to make deals with Republicans, and I don't think he realized he'd have such an insanely opposing Congress.

The Congress has now become a fairly evenly divided entity.

I think reconciliation is Obama's goal - but the fight with the Republicans is like a fight with pit bulls, they never let go. Even worse, now the Republicans feel they can keep pushing and he will keep giving. They have not seen a stiff resistance on his part.

I really don't think there's a lack of good will between members of the parties. I go back a long way with a lot of Republicans, so I don't think it's personal. But there does seem to be a much greater gap in both the philosophy and emphasis on partisan victories as opposed to policy development.

We've gotten to the point now where Republicans and Democrats have nothing in common besides being members of the 'caustic caucus,' and we can't get anything done.

I was never a fan of Barack Obama's bipartisanship routine.

Too often in Washington special interests urge us to fight one another just because we belong to different parties. It is time for this to stop and for Washington to focus on what needs to be done.

President Bush said that he wanted to change the tone in Washington. He has; it has gotten worse.

Divided government need not be dysfunctional government.

My Republican compatriots do not feel that people ought to work with Democrats across the aisle—Compromise is a bad word.

You used to get legislation done by getting the moderates to agree. But we have no moderates now so it doesn’t get done

Members of Congress don’t speak to their colleagues any more. They talk to the national audience.

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

I think it's a time to be sad about what's been done to the United States Senate, the greatest deliberative body in the world.

Senators, representatives too often, we hear from our base, don't talk to the other side, don't with work with them.

Democratic, Republican members of Congress get along fine. But what you have is this institutional Hatfield and McCoy sentiment coming from our constituents, where the base of both sides doesn't want people to get along. But the majority of Americans, I feel, the majority, they are in the middle. They actually do want both sides to get together.

When I first came to the Senate, people in both parties went out of their way to have personal relationships.

It's been interesting seeing how vulnerable Obama is: not the secure president I thought he was or the strong leader that many people hoped he would be. He's a conciliator. But I've been listening to the Republican primary debates, and they're a bunch of lunatics. Just crazy.

The worst thing about our political system is that people debate; I wish our politicians were able to talk to each other rather than scream while trying to gain sound bites.