Comments of the Senator From Massachusetts

Floor Speech

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Mr. President, I confess that I came to the floor to talk about some of the nominations that we are going to see coming from the administration, particularly regarding one of our colleagues, Senator Sessions, the Senator from Alabama, to be the next Attorney General.

I am somewhat taken aback by the nature of the comments that I hear coming from the Senator from Massachusetts. I had to refresh my memory of the Senate Standing Rules, which I thought prohibited this sort of ad hominem attack--the claims of corruption, selling legislation for campaign contributions. I thought the rules of decorum of the Senate prohibited that sort of demagoguery.

But I am not sure you can write a rule that would prohibit somebody who is actually determined to defy the very voters they claim to be representing. If our Democratic colleagues like the result of the election that just occurred on November 8, I would say: Keep on keeping on. Keep on with this same sort of ad hominem attacks and attacking the motivation of people, rather than talking about policy.

I thought that is what the Senate was supposed to be all about--not where we come in here and call each other names. It is no wonder that the American people are turned off by what they see as politics as usual. I think what they told us on November 8 is that they actually would like to see us accomplish some things--first of all, starting with listening to them, not telling them what is good for them and saying: Well, if you don't like it, you are going to have to take it because the people in power, the people working in Washington, the elites in America know better than you do what is good for you.

So when I hear the Senator from Massachusetts come in and give essentially a political speech, such as she did, not talking about the merits or the policy but rather making personal attacks against Senators and people who support the policy, I just think this is beneath the dignity of the Senate.

I would hope we would rise to the occasion, in the wake of this historic election and say: You know what, we can do better. The American people deserve better than what they have been getting coming out of Washington. The only way we are going to be able to turn this country around is by, first of all, listening to what the American people are telling us. We know what they said is this: We are not happy with the direction of the country, and we are not happy with what is happening in Washington.

To come in and make the kind of speeches that I just heard a moment ago is disturbing. It is disappointing. We can do better than that. We must do better than that if we are going to regain the confidence of the American people that we are actually worthy of their support as we try to guide this ship of state and try to pass laws that actually will improve the quality of their lives by growing the economy, by making it possible for people to find work who want work so they can provide for their families, to try to make sure that the American people are safe and secure, and to provide for our common defense.

Those are the sorts of things we ought to be focused on. So it is a little distressing to walk into this Chamber, in what used to be known as the world's greatest deliberative body, and to hear the sort of diatribe and the personal attacks and the name calling that we just heard from the Senator from Massachusetts.

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