What makes this mentality dangerous is that when the team is held together by careerism and mindless partisanship, individual members are punished for thinking for themselves.

The earmark favor factory needs to be boarded up and demolished, not turned over to new management that may or may not have a better eye for earmarks with 'merit.'

Social Security and Medicare represent promises made and we must keep these commitments.

Statesmen exhibit five key commitments: 1) A commitment to principles above politics; 2) An ability to compromise without abandoning principle; 3) A commitment to truth over spin; 4) A commitment to courage over cowardice; and 5) A commitment, or willingness, to give up power.

When we have heartbeat and brain waves, we refuse to accept it as the presence of life - this lack of logic of which we approach this issue because we like and we favor convenience over ethics. We favor convenience over the hard parts of life that actually make us grow.

Welfare reform happened with reconciliation; half the Democrats voted for it. The Bush tax cuts happened with reconciliation; twelve Democratic Senators voted for it. You didn't have a real partisan issue on those times that it was used

One poll showed that Americans have a higher opinion of witches, the IRS and hemorrhoids than Congress