Legislative Leadership Quotes

The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument... an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.

Being Speaker of the House is a really tough spot.

I want to continue to serve as whip of the caucus.

No man ever exercised less influence in the Senate or the House of Representatives than he, but no man ever exercised more power as a political leader.

I arrived in Hartford as a 25-year-old naive state legislator who believed in universal health care. I rose to become the 29-year-old Chairman of the legislature's Health Committee.

To go from chairman of the House Appropriations Committee in the Kansas Legislature to one of 50 on the Appropriations Committee and one of 435 in the whole House, it is more difficult to directly impact policy here.

In his first 100 days, Mr. Obama has put the fate of his presidency in the hands of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He may come to regret that decision.

I understand clearly as a freshman in Congress, you don't get to steer the bus.

Leave me alone. I'm Carl Albert, Speaker of the House ... I just got you raises.

I think that all areas of the budget have to be scrubbed. Clearly the entitlement issues have to be reformed and that's an issue that's going to require I think some strong bipartisan cooperation and leadership.

I am possessed of two separate powers; the one in esse and the other in posse. I am Vice President. In this I am nothing, but I may be everything. But I am President also of the Senate.

I will be my own kind of senator using my own best judgment and my own experience.

Every member of Congress deserves a seat at the table to be involved in the process. I will continue fighting for this to become a reality in Washington, and will be running for speaker of the House.

Having five children in six years is the best training in the world for Speaker of the House.

At present the direction of our affairs, foreign and domestic, has again come to be almost wholly in the hands of the Senate, because there are in the Senate a few courageous men who have dared to take control from the Executive.

Starting in 2005, my first session in the legislature, my colleagues elected me to be Democratic whip.

There's a new role that I see for myself with the new Republican majority running the Senate. I am now the premiere ambassador for the state from the Republican majority.

Allowing a non-lawyer to be on the Supreme Court strikes me as a very American thing, in a good way. Another is that the speaker of the house doesn't have to be a member of congress. He or she can be anyone. I'm not sure if James Madison really intended that, or if the wording was accidentally imprecise, but the Constitution, as a recall, simply says that the House shall chuse a speaker.

Susan Brooks is a hard-working public servant who has spent her career fighting for Hoosiers. In Congress, she was the first woman from Indiana to chair a committee, and has become one of the most effective lawmakers in Washington: her dedicated work on behalf of her constituents and our state will be missed.

For over 25 years, Lacy Clay has been a powerful voice for working families and a tireless advocate for the people of St. Louis. And throughout his long career in public service, I've considered Lacy a close personal friend.

Lyndon Johnson, as majority leader of the United States Senate, he made the Senate work.

It's no secret I was part of John Dingell's whip team.

I think it could get passed in a lame duck? Probably tough. But impossible? No, or I wouldn't be wasting my time. It's going to take some leadership, and it takes a time where leadership is more important than people's political career at times.

Worst damnfool mistake I ever made was letting myself be elected Vice-President of the United States. Should have stuck with my old chores as Speaker of the House. I gave up the second most important job in the Government for one that didn't amount to a hill of beans. I spent eight long years as Mr. Roosevelt's spare tire. I might still be Speaker if I hadn't let them elect me Vice-President.

President Obama has created at least three jobs that I know of - Bob McDonnell, Chris Christie, and Scott Brown.