There's only one way we're going to change our political climate and ensure we establish some respect in our discourse. And that is to show there is a real price to pay for being a disrespectful partisan idiot.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
People want change but not too much change. Finding that balance is tricky for every politician.
The way you have bipartisan negotiations, you sit down across the table, as we did with Ted Kennedy, as I've done with many other members, and you say, 'OK, here's what I want, here's what you want. We'll adhere to your principles, but we'll make concessions.'
Now is the time to show maximum responsibility. It is not the time to pay off old scores nor for sterile partisan recriminations. It is time to re-establish a climate of calmness and mutual respect.
Political discourse has become so rotten that it's no longer possible to tell the stench of one presidential candidate from the stink of another.
If we don't like what the Republicans do, we need to get in there and change it.
I am going to be respectful of you, and I want you to be respectful of me. We are all Democrats, and we need to act like it.
The wrong people will do everything in their power to guarantee that the wrong political climate will continue. It seems, then, that the wrong people ensure the wrong political climate and the wrong political climate ensures the wrong people. How then to break free of this vicious circle?
I will not speak with disrespect of the Republican Party. I always speak with respect of the past.
Earth to Democrats: Displaying contempt for the American people when you are being paid by those people to serve their interests is generally not a good political move.
There isn't a political price to be paid yet for doing nothing. People need to get upset with President Bush. People need to get upset with their Congressmen.