Christopher Dodd Quotations

As the temperature drops, the need for heating oil goes up.

Firefighters are indispensable foot soldiers here at home.

America's highways, roads, bridges, are an indispensable part of our lives. They link one end of our nation to the other. We use them each and every day, for every conceivable purpose.

When the public's right to know is threatened, and when the rights of free speech and free press are at risk, all of the other liberties we hold dear are endangered.

We learned that economic growth and environmental protection can and should go hand in hand.

Every American deserves to live in freedom, to have his or her privacy respected and a chance to go as far as their ability and effort will take them - regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or economic circumstances.

All Americans should have access to quality, affordable health care.

Our children are our greatest resource and Head Start grants help them reach their full potential.

It's easy for Americans to forget that the food they eat doesn't magically appear on a supermarket shelf.

Pell Grants are, and have been, critically important tools in making higher education a possibility for lower- and middle-income students.

It's vital that we help them get the right start, nurture their development and provide for their well-being.

I intend to fight to ensure that Connecticut workers have a level playing field when competing for jobs.

Low-income taxpayers deserve the same rights as everyone else. It was wrong of the IRS to target low-income taxpayers, and I am please by the decision to correct this unfair practice.

Our nation's children are our greatest asset and our most precious treasure.

We owe it to each other - and to our children and grandchildren - to leave our planet in a better state than when we found it.

Entrenched bureaucracies are always opposed to fundamental changes.

It's time to renew our commitment to the world around us.

Our military should spare no expense to ensure the safety of our troops, particularly as they confront a hostile insurgency and roadside bombs throughout Iraq.

Our seniors have worked long and hard to better the economy, raise families and serve their communities. They deserve to live independent and active lives in their golden years.

Working families need to know that we will work to protect their health needs, promote the development of safe, effective medicines, and guarantee patient rights.

As a world leader, America must be prepared to confront any challenge.

Connecticut's first responders and defense workers work every day to help us achieve these goals.

I don't care what the public wants, I'm going to give it what it needs!

We stand completely and totally behind our president. We may have our differences from time to time, but on a day like this, which rivals or not exceeds the attack on Pearl Harbor, we stand united behind our president and our government.

We've got a very busy agenda at the U.N., it's going to be very difficult to get the job done. Let's get behind him, let him do his work I certainly want to see him succeed but I'm going to watch him carefully.

We've tried to discount what I call the 'Y2K survivalist mentality' -- somehow that this is going to be Armageddon,

There is a sense here among people of ...both persuasions here that we need to get this over with. There is a danger of this thing spinning out of control again and going on way too long. And that's the sense I got today from my colleagues.

Yes, it is a new world. And I think it is a better world.

The real hope was that we could get some cease-fire agreement here,

She went over the rationale for the decision that this was a deteriorating situation that was getting worse,

Medicare has been one of the most successful, popular programs since its inception,

I am confident that we are going to have a bill. I think we're there.

China is a worry, Japan is a worry, Russia is a worry, Italy is a worry. ... But many of these countries now are moving more aggressively and catching up.

I don't think we've been muscular enough, if you will, at the diplomatic table. I don't disagree that we ought to leave the military option on the table.

He would do himself, and I think the country, a favor by withdrawing.

He is a person of outstanding ability and strong character who possesses in my view a deep commitment to the law and the principle of equal justice for all,

What you ought to do is prepare for a good storm, a hurricane, a storm where you'd like two or three days of ... water and canned goods and the like, ... Face The Nation.

Harold, of course, is a person who doesn't express himself as clearly as you might like. He's sort of vague from time to time about how he feels about things. There's a shyness to him in private meetings when it comes to telling you exactly what he thinks of you, your idea and your plans.

I think you're going to have an awfully difficult time with Mr. Bolton building the kind of support the United States needs today at the United Nations,

is a normal procedure in any court in this country, civil or criminal in this country. So this is not a deal, not some truncated proposal that is being made here. It's pretty standard procedures in any trial proceedings and I would urge my colleagues not go give up on this idea.

Our nation will have the capacity to build this critical component of our national security structure for the 21st century. It was a great risk in my view to have a diminished number of these vessels if we didn't have this base.

Looking at large parts of it, you don?t know how they?re going to rebuild it.

I would hope the president would think a little longer about this from his perspective,

tie up three branches of government for the next four months.

You make the comparison, do you want two or three years out of Sandra Day O'Connor, or 25 years out of this? ... Based on what we know, the choice looks pretty good - keep Sandra Day O'Connor.

We need to do something about antiquated voting machines, ballots that confuse rather than clarify, and overcrowded polling places.

This will be the first U.N. ambassador since 1948 that we've ever sent there under a recess appointment,

Twenty-three months ago, our nation was thrown into turmoil because we learned a painful reality -- that our democracy did not work as well as it should. ... The legislation we present to the Congress today rectifies those wrongs, does justice to the American voter.

What did the vice president know, what were his intentions?

Throwing worn-out wallpaper on a cracked foundation just doesn't work. The Bush administration proposal amounts to nothing more than that. Don't solve the problem, just end up with more rhetoric. We need a fundamental change in the way we look at Cuba.

we are very, very worried about what happens in the rural or urban situations.

Earth Day is an occasion to reflect on what we can do to make our fragile world a cleaner, healthier, safer place to live.

Direct mail service is not likely to happen without cooperation from the Cuban government, nor the scholarship programs for Cuban students. Humanitarian assistance by non-governmental organizations is already ongoing.

Is there a White House Syrian group, for instance, that's meeting? Are we planning some action in Syria that we ought to be aware of in this committee?- Are we considering military action against Syria?,

The Senate's tradition is ruled to protect debate and guarantee that we can't be trampled upon.

The specific package of proposals announced by the administration is much ado about nothing, quite candidly.

Rosa Parks is not just a national hero, she is the embodiment of our social and human conscience and the spark that lit the flame of liberty and equality for African Americans and minority groups in this country and around the globe.

Rumsfeld is violating the law, ... It's been sitting on the books for over a year. They were opposed to it. It was insulting to them. I'm sorry that's how they felt.

not yet arrived at a product that we can present to this body that is a bipartisan proposal.

demonstrated that an honest and respectable discussion of differences between the United States and Cuba is possible.

And there's a danger in this bill that you're going to do great damage to a wonderful program.

This is the first time in more than 200 years that the federal government will take a very proactive role in the conduct of elections,

(Although) there's no existing evidence here that Karl Rove is about to be indicted ... the president has to make a determination as to whether or not he wants to be preoccupied with legal issues around the White House, ... Fox News Sunday.

This ought not to be a controversial proposal,

they're going to pay an awful price politically and it hurts the country terribly in my view.

There's been a list of witnesses who have come forward -- seven different people who corroborated that Mr. Bolton tried to fire a defense analyst. Not just one -- seven different people, all within this administration.

Asking her to stay on, at least until January, gives the president a bit more time to think this process through, rather than trying to jam decisions.

It's because of our failure to deal with this issue, the underlying cause of it, and the idea that if we scream loud enough at these other countries we're somehow going to get far better cooperation out of these nations,

Consumers all across the country, I don't care where you live, are irate about this, ... If it were not for Katrina and people being terribly upset about the mismanagement of that disaster, this would be the sole subject of discussion!

That's not what you want to send up, a person that doesn't have the confidence of the Congress, and so many people who have urged that he not be sent up to do that job.

The message that we send in the next 48 to 72 hours out of this Congress on this issue -- I think it would have a huge effect on the outcome of this conflict.

Information kills darkness. Light kills darkness. As long as we don't allow information and people to move into a place like Cuba, you are just assisting Fidel Castro to stay in power,

I'm so proud of our students here in Connecticut and obviously President Clinton was impressed too since he's agreed to thank the students in person for their tremendous efforts to help the people affected by these tragic disasters,

I'm hopeful this measure will help bring to justice people who perpetrated heinous crimes because of racial hatred,

If you go that route ... we may be talking May or June before we finish this trial, ... Meet The Press.

If you start doing a finding of fact as a preliminary step, you're creating a whole new avenue for the legislative branch to basically discipline the executive branch, ... Late Edition.

The world changed on September 11, 2001.

I take great pride in the fact that I have lived in a Spanish-speaking country.

There was plenty of evidence that Saddam had nuclear weapons, by the way. That is not in dispute. There is plenty of evidence of that.

I am an advocate... of public financing for years. That is the one way to get money out of politics. I believe that would be what we ought to be doing.

When the public's right to know is threatened, all other public rights are threatened.

I will only vote to confirm a nominee for attorney general who is truly independent and who will guarantee reforms that restore and uphold the Constitution.

Military solution in Iraq has been disproven and discredited.

We need willingness to consider different mission in Iraq.

Some of the lowest-paid workers in this nation are people that we ask to watch the next generation of Americans. We do a better job insisting that your pets are cared for in this country than your children are, and there ought to be a sense of outrage about that.

The war against terrorism will not be finished as long as he [Saddam Hussein] is in power.

A so-called 'blackout' is yet another gimmick, albeit a dangerous one, designed to punish elected and administration officials who are working diligently to protect American jobs from foreign criminals,

For three decades, Democrats and Republicans worked together to make our environment better.

American workers are first rate.

Secrecy can spring from the best motives; but as it grows it begins to exist only for itself, only for its own sake, only to cover its own abuses.

When the Chinese told Google that they had to block sites or they couldn't do [business] in their country, they managed to figure out how to block sites.

Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake.

It cannot bring back and make whole those who suffered and died by a racist's criminal hand. But it can at least reaffirm our nation's commitment to seek the truth and make equal justice a reality.

Eight more days and I can start telling the truth again

Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake.

There is no question that Iraq possesses biological and chemical weapons and that he [Saddam Hussein] seeks to acquire additional weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons. That is not in debate. I also agree with President Bush that Saddam Hussein is a threat to peace and must be disarmed, to quote President Bush directly.

By strengthening the economy, providing job opportunity and meeting the needs of working families, we can ensure the continued prosperity of our nation.

I do not think it is an exaggeration at all to say to my friend from West Virginia [Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a former Ku Klux Klan recruiter] that he would have been a great senator at any moment. . . . He would have been right during the great conflict of civil war in this nation.

However, OMB has not yet set a target date for validated and tested contingency plans,