Legislative Accomplishments Quotes

There's no question that Kennedy was an utter failure as a passer of laws during his proverbial thousand days.

I continued to serve in Congress until 2001.

Listen, I have a great affection and respect for Joe Biden. I think he's been a great vice president. He's taken on a lot of tough assignments for our administration.

I want to dig in before I finish with a career here in Congress - be known as someone who was a really serious legislator, who had really good ideas and was willing to work across the aisle to get broad consensus to solve some of these problems the country is facing.

It is therefore not to be wondered at that Lincoln's single term in the House of Representatives at Washington added practically nothing to his reputation.

The 112th Congress passed only 220 laws, the lowest number enacted by any Congress. In 1948, when President Truman called the 80th Congress a 'Do-Nothing' Congress, it had passed more than 900 laws.

Thousands of members of Congress have come and gone over the years, their individual achievements hidden in committee reports, private compromises, amendments pushed through or blocked, and innumerable, unnoticed meetings.

If you want gridlock in Washington,then I'm probably not your guy because I'm running a campaign to say I can fix these things because I did it as governor. I have 32 years of business experience and eight years as governor.

The Republican party is not perfect, but if you put this party's record of achievements on one side of a balance scale and the Democrat's record on the other, the Republican side would slam the table.

The first years in Parliament I did nothing - nothing to any purpose. My own distinction was my darling object.

[Benjamin] Franklin may be a great philosopher, [John Adams] told his diary in 1779, but "as a Legislator in America he has done very little."

Very few men are fortunate enough to gain distinction during their first term in Congress.

But people ought to be proud to be Democrats right now. You know, we're a happy warrior party. And this Congress has every reason to be very, very proud of the heavy lifting that they have done.

I enjoyed working with Ted Kennedy.

If you look through history, all of the great work we've done in Congress has been around a table of compromise, when it comes to the most difficult problems.

Probably the most effective legislator we've ever had.

Well we didn't look at it like that. We looked at it: "Why Carolyn Maloney?" Of course, we didn't know about Caroline Kennedy, but we do know and have - this is not against somebody, this is for somebody who we know has had a proven record. It's 16 years in the House, 10 years on the City Council of New York City, that she has shown her determination to pass legislation. She is - she knows how a legislature works.

It is often constructive to meet with a candidate for a particular office, but I believe what is most important is the candidate's track record.

That's my point: What's she [Hillary Clinton] got to show for her 30 years around town? Right on!

I admire John Boehner greatly. He's a great public servant. I think people are going to miss him in the long run because he's a person that is focused on solving problems.

When I came back to Washington to be The Times' chief congressional correspondent in 1991, I was looking for a book subject, and Ted Kennedy stood out for two reasons.

I did one cable news hit during my first 10 months in Congress.

McCarthy had ten years in the House of Representatives, only two terms as a senator. What did he pass? Are there any bills or any piece of legislation that he's identified with? Not at all.

Carolyn Maloney has extensive - she's shown over and over again her creativity, her determination, her tenacity in fighting for women's rights. She has passed a host of bills in many different areas, both national and global, with both national and global importance for women, and she's on a Chair of Finance Committee so essentially in this economic crisis, we thought she would be perfect.

Presidents are evaluated not by what they did by the stroke of their own pen; it's what they persuade Congress to do.