Top 34 Quotes & Sayings by Tom Daschle

President Bush has said that the economy is growing, that there are jobs out there. But you know, it's a long commute to China to get those jobs.

We must govern from the middle, or we will not be able to govern at all.

On issues relating to taxes, you don't always speak with one voice.

You've got two people that are well known in South Dakota, respected. We'll see how it all shakes out.

It was important for us to be as supportive as our candidates and as our incumbent senators would have us be.

What we need is not more distrust and division. What we need now is acceptance.

Let there be no doubt: the state of our union is strong - stronger than the terrorists who seek to harm us and stronger than the challenges that confront us. At the same time, we know that our union can be stronger still.

I've been amazed at the degree to which Democrats, in particular, have expressed their enthusiasm for the president's manner with which he handled this budget.

Senators, like everyone else, want to feel a part of this decision-making process. They want to feel included.

Bipartisanship isn't an option anymore; it is a requirement. The American people have divided responsibility for leadership right down the middle.

We know we're up against the wall. We know how difficult a challenge it is, being in the minority.

We need real campaign finance reform to loosen the grip of special interests on politics.

When you're in the minority, it doesn't matter what you're agenda is, you're not going to have the degree of freedom that you have as a member of the majority.

We must correct the problems and inequities in the way we conduct and decide elections in the United States.

This president failed so miserably in diplomacy that we are now forced to war.

Make no mistake, tax cheaters cheat us all, and the IRS should enforce our laws to the letter.

Iraq is not the only nation in the world to possess weapons of mass destruction, but it is the only nation with a leader who has used them against his own people.

We have exhausted all of our diplomatic effort to get the Iraqis to comply with their own agreements and with international law. Given that... we have got to force them to comply, and we are doing so militarily.

The campaign is over. It's time for the work of governing to begin.

People were concerned about national security, and that precluded us from having the opportunity to break through on the issues that we cared most about - the economy, education and health care.

It would be nice if we could clear up the nominations that are still out there, and there are a lot of them.

America has lost an icon. Ronald Reagan's leadership will inspire Americans for generations to come. His patriotism and devotion to our country will never be forgotten.

While endangering one of the most pristine areas in the world, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would do nothing to make our country more energy independent.

President Bush failed "miserably" at diplomacy, forcing the United States into war.

As the representatives of the people we are here to declare that our resolve has not been weakened by these horrific and cowardly acts.

Trust doesn't come haphazardly. It really has to be built over time. And that trust has to happen really at times when there isn't a crisis. That's why I think having regular meetings and conversation when there's no crisis, when you can build trust and a friendship and a relationship that allows for better dialogue and far more consequential deal-making can occur when a crisis does come up.

I think we are isolating ourselves, and in so isolating ourselves, I think we're minimizing ourselves, I don't think we are taken as seriously today as we were a few years ago.

If journalism is the first draft of history, then the Internet simply has provided a new means for delivering that draft far and wide very quickly.

If I could leave this body with one wish, it would be that we never give up that search for common ground, .. The politics of common ground will not be found on the far right, or on the far left. That is not where most Americans live. We will only find it on the firm middle ground, based on common sense and shared values.

[I am] saddened, saddened, that this president [Bush] failed so miserably at diplomacy that we're now forced to go to war. Saddened that we have to give up one life because this president couldn't create the kind of diplomatic effort that was so critical for our country.

Literally minutes before the Senate cast its vote, the administration sought to add the words 'in the United States and' after 'appropriate force' in the agreed-upon text. This last-minute change would have given the president broad authority to exercise expansive powers not just overseas-where we all understood he wanted authority to act-but right here in the United States, potentially against American citizens. I could see no justification for Congress to accede to this extraordinary request for additional authority. I refused.

There may not be much difference between Democrats and Republicans anymore.

We will also never bring up the permanent tax cut the president is advocating.

Diplomacy has been exhausted .. Continued instability in the Balkans threatens important U.S. national interests,.