Working Across the Aisle Quotes

Rhetorically, President Obama is a champion of bipartisanship. In practice, though, he is almost always its enemy.

I was ranked the fifth most bipartisan freshman when I went to Congress, and I think that my motto really is, 'Agree where you can and fight where you must.'

Bipartisanship and decency are thrown to the waste side because people want their party to win so badly.

The one thing I'm convinced George W. Bush is good at is bipartisanship. It's clearly something he enjoys personally.

In the House, I was named one of the most bipartisan members of Congress, and that's a title I plan on continuing to hold in the Senate.

The only way I can get progressive things done is working with Republicans.

When I got to the Senate, I started working with Republicans. I think I practically worked with every single one of them, and a lot of them were on record talking about what a good colleague I am and how I like to get things done.

It is possible to work across the aisle in Washington, but it's hard. And I think it's been made worse by the kind of 24-hour news cycle, the fact that everything is on TV before you can work things out quietly. I think it's the intensity of information that makes it feel more difficult to get things done. But I didn't leave with a bitter taste about the politics. The one thing that I would say is, I do think there is an unfortunate tendency to turn political differences, or policy differences, into critiques of one another's character or motives, and that's unfortunate.

A wise nation should cultivate a political spirit that allows opponents to cooperate without fearing an automatic execution from their core supporters. Who knew that the real rogues in American politics would be the ones who dare to get along?