Jonathan Rauch Quotes

I was entirely comfortable reaching across the Senate aisle to work with Democrats.

If you really want to get something done in Washington, it has to be done in a bi-Partisan way.

If Republicans and Democrats commit to working together, we can reach a bipartisan, common-sense agreement to reverse Illinois' economic decline and set the stage for a bright economic future.

If politicians of both parties would spend more time legislating and less time attacking each other, we would all be better off.

The idea that two political parties can't come together to get a mission done is foreign to me - and unacceptable.

It is necessary to have party organization if we are to have effective and efficient government.

The attitude of the Senate toward public affairs makes all serious negotiations impossible.

Has Washington become so dysfunctional that even when we all agree on something, we can’t get it done?

This is good government. We have divided government. To make divided government work you can’t ask each other to compromise core principles…. We ask each other to find common ground for the common good.

Unless we have the Republicans joining us and helping us … we’ll have a mutiny in this goddamned country. So we’ve got to make this an American bill and not just a Democratic bill … It doesn’t do any good to have a law like the Volstead Act if you can’t enforce it

We need elected officials who overcome partisan politics to really help people.

I'm tired of divided government. It doesn't work very well.

When Senator McCain reaches across the aisle to find Democrats to support efforts to make America stronger, he finds plenty of us standing, willing to help him and many other Republican leaders.

There are going to be times when we disagree with our leadership, but ultimately, we've got to work hard to pull our leadership to the right and to move a conservative agenda forward and unite as conservatives if we're going to get things done.

I was the Republican governor of the heavily Democratic state of New Mexico. I focused on good government, and I got it done - just like my running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld. The people of New Mexico reelected me by a comfortable margin. Ditto for Weld.

It is past time for Democrats and Republicans to join together to create a bipartisan coalition for courage and common sense.

What do you prefer? A prime minister obsessed with being popular, or a prime minister who does the job?

We want to move forward in a bipartisan fashion to solve our problems.

Congress is more broken than ever. Congressman Will Hurd has quickly become part of the problem.

As a politician, I worked very, very hard in order to maintain the unity of our country. That was my aim.

Congress has been productive when focusing on bites of policy that don't inflame the divisions within the party and quietly do the work of governing.

New Hampshire is moving in the right direction because we have shown time and time again that we can work across the aisle to solve problems.

If the government shuts down, nothing happens, and we all move on, because it just doesn't matter. Stasis in the government is actually good for all of us.

I will do my part every day to work with my colleagues in a bipartisan fashion to unite us, and not divide us.

I've grown to love Barack Obama. Hillary is no Bernie Sanders. But she's a politician, and she understands Congress. And I think with that kind of twisted beauty, she could lead our country.