Caucus Quotes

All my life I've been involved with racial politics. I was a Freedom Rider in the South. I was the author of books on gang violence, I was a community organizer in Newark, New Jersey, and when I spoke to the Black Caucus, congressional and state, I realized they were going all the way for Hillary [Clinton] and so was the Latino caucus in Sacramento and I asked myself this question: "Do I really want to cast my vote against these people who have been central to my life and to the soul of the country?" And so I went with them. Period. ~ Tom Hayden

You had 42 blacks that ran on the Republican ticket this Cycle, 14 made of them made it to the general election and two of us made it to the House of Representatives. So I think that there is a new movement that needs to have a voice in the Congressional Black Caucus. ~ Allen West

Reviewing books is all about coziness. It is all of it a kind of caucus race. Women review women, Jewish writers review and praise Jewish writers, blacks review blacks, etc. ~ Alexander Theroux

And I also serve on a caucus that addresses financial literacy for young people in this country. And it is so hypocritical that we want to talk to these kids about how to better manage their money when we are not doing a good job with our Nation's resources. ~ Melissa Bean

Many ideas have been transformed by adding one crucial adjective-women's bank, women's music, women's studies, women's caucus. That adjective did more than change a phrase. It implied a lot of new content: child care, flexible work hours, new standards of creditworthiness, new symbolism, new lyrics. ~ Gloria Steinem

Soul, wilt thou toss again?
By just such a hazard
Hundreds have lost, indeed,
But tens have won all.
Angels' breathless ballot
Lingers to record thee;
Imps in eager caucus
Raffle for my soul. ~ Emily Dickinson

The Caucus I joined in 1953 had as many Boer War veterans as men who had seen active service in World War II, three from each. The Ministry appointed on 5 December 1972 was composed entirely of ex-servicemen: Lance Barnard and me. ~ Gough Whitlam

I've been the co-chair of the Non-Partisan Women's Caucus and vice-chair for several years, taking a leadership role in this women's organization. ~ Gwen Moore

We've gotten to the point now where Republicans and Democrats have nothing in common besides being members of the 'caustic caucus,' and we can't get anything done. ~ Emanuel Cleaver

I have an ability to work collegially across a wide range of interests in the caucus and in the Congress, and an ability to work on a bipartisan basis. Appropriators pride themselves on that. ~ Marcy Kaptur

I'm a member of the Academy, but I don't know who all the other Academy members are. It's not like a politician who knows who is in the Iowa caucus. ~ Albert Brooks

Hillary Clinton almost got to be president. The reasons why she didn't become president had to do with bad judgments about how to handle the early caucus states, which is not a gender-specific trait. ~ Gail Collins

The Populist Caucus aims to bring people together around middle class issues, so we can tolerate a little difference of opinion. ~ Bruce Braley

NumbersUSA's work was critical to derailing the 2007 comprehensive federal immigration bill, which had, at that point, received the support of President Buch, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the high-tech industry, the Catholic Church, immigrant-advocacy organizations, and several industries reliant on immigration labor, including farming, food services, and construction. During the weeks leading up to the floor vote on the bill, NumbersUSA coordinated weekly phone calls with the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, mobilized its members to engage key senators, and provided those senators with information and arguments necessary to oppose the bill. Several actors, including pro-immigrant advocates, restrictionists, and members of Congress, have credited NumbersUSA with causing the collapse of the bill in the Senate. ~ Pratheepan Gulasekaram

I can assure you the hemorrhaging has stopped. I asked remaining caucus members if they adhered to the party program, if they would stay in the PQ and that they would be by my side. They all said yes. ~ Pauline Marois

Since this often seems to come up in discussions of the radical style, I'll mention one other gleaning from my voyages. Beware of Identity politics. I'll rephrase that: have nothing to do with identity politics. I remember very well the first time I heard the saying "The Personal Is Political." It began as a sort of reaction to defeats and downturns that followed 1968: a consolation prize, as you might say, for people who had missed that year. I knew in my bones that a truly Bad Idea had entered the discourse. Nor was I wrong. People began to stand up at meetings and orate about how they 'felt', not about what or how they thought, and about who they were rather than what (if anything) they had done or stood for. It became the replication in even less interesting form of the narcissism of the small difference, because each identity group begat its sub-groups and "specificities." This tendency has often been satirised - the overweight caucus of the Cherokee transgender disabled lesbian faction demands a hearing on its needs - but never satirised enough. You have to have seen it really happen. From a way of being radical it very swiftly became a way of being reactionary; the Clarence Thomas hearings demonstrated this to all but the most dense and boring and selfish, but then, it was the dense and boring and selfish who had always seen identity politics as their big chance.
Anyway, what you swiftly realise if you peek over the wall of your own immediate neighbourhood or envi ~ Christopher Hitchens

In fact, caucus, a word derived from the Algonquin languages, better reflected the layers of talking circles and the goal of consensus that were at the heart of governance. ~ Gloria Steinem

The Congressional Prayer Caucus has worked successfully to advocate for and protect values that are fundamental to the fabric of our nation, and I'm honored to serve as co-chairman. ~ James Lankford

I don't believe that there is anybody who denies climate change in the Democratic caucus. Everybody accepts that it is a real problem. ~ Sheldon Whitehouse

One of the first things I did as a new Member of Congress was help form a bipartisan Mississippi River Caucus so we could work together from both the North and the South in order to draw attention to the resources that are needed along the Mississippi River. ~ Ron Kind

One of the most important accomplishments of the Caucus is raising awareness with law enforcement and communities nationwide on the issues of child safety and Internet safety. ~ Nick Lampson

My teenage children watched Senator Clinton on the Today Show, mouths agape. They attended our local caucus with me and saw hundreds of our friends and neighbors gathered in the elementary school gym on that Sunday afternoon, despite an ugly Maine snowstorm. They listened to the thoughtful searching debates and saw us cast our votes. How could anyone suggest we didn't know exactly what we were doing? 'What's the point of electing someone who doesn't believe in the American people?' they asked. 'If she wants to ignore us now when she's only a candidate, what will she do as the President?' ~ Shoshana Zuboff

That's my personal view I would say most in my caucus agree with that but there are some who don't and I've always said that on these kinds of moral issues, people have the right to their own opinions. ~ Stephen Harper

I would recommend you run as if you are running for governor in three states - Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. There were the first three caucus or primary states. "Run and sound local, like you want to be their governor." A lot of candidates make the huge mistake of trying to run in 27 states. "Run three governor's races, and you'll have a really good shot. Focus on three. Do well in three. And the others will come. ~ Bob Woodward

Nature will not let us fret and fume. She does not like our benevolence or our learning much better than she likes our frauds andwars. When we come out of the caucus, or the bank, or the abolition-convention, or the temperance-meeting, or the transcendental club, into the fields and woods, she says to us, so hot? my little Sir. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Under President Barack Obama, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has been invited into the White House and given a seat at the table. Hispanics are serving in unprecedented numbers at the highest levels of this administration, including in the Cabinet. ~ Charlie Gonzalez

As co-chair of the Iraqi Women's Caucus in the House, I've enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with and hear from Iraqi women elected to serve in the new National Assembly. ~ Ellen Tauscher

Nobody knows what the whales may have to click and clack about, but it could be a form of voting-time to stop here and synchronously dive down in search of deep water squid, now time to resurface, move on, dive again. Clans also seem to caucus on which males they like and will mate with more or less as a group and which ones to collectively spurn. By all appearances, female sperm whales are terrible size queens. Over the generations, they have consistently voted in favor of enhanced male mass. Their dream candidate nowadays is some fellow named Moby, and he's three times their size. ~ Natalie Angier

Perhaps these men in the House Caucus Room [Committee on Un-American Activities] are determined to spread silence: to frighten those voices which will shout no, and ask questions, defend the few, attack cruelty and proclaim the rights and dignity of man ... America is going to look very strange to Americans and they will not be at home here, for the air will slowly become unbreathable to all forms of life except sheep. ~ Martha Gellhorn

Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner, bypassed the debate before the Iowa caucuses because he objected to the participation of moderator Megyn Kelly as well a press release defending her.Beyond the Trump tantrum, we wondered if this had something bigger to say about the state of the media and politics and how politics is practiced today. ~ Michel Martin

I am pleased to launch the Friends of Thailand Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives. ~ Jim Ramstad

Emerging from the caucus, Johnson told reporters that he had no plans to release his delegates; My name will stay as long as the American people are interested. ~ Robert A. Caro

GNOSTICS, n. A sect of philosophers who tried to engineer a fusion between the early Christians and the Platonists. The former would not go into the caucus and the combination failed, greatly to the chagrin of the fusion managers. ~ Ambrose Bierce

Hillary Clinton does represent the establishment. I represent, I hope, ordinary Americans, and by the way, who are not all that enamored with the establishment, but I am very proud to have people like Keith Ellison and Raul Grijalva in the House, the co-chairmen of the House Progressive Caucus. ~ Bernie Sanders

I've just come back from Vegas, and I was in on the caucus process. It's insane. What a mess. And also with these particular candidates who are running, so many times I said, "I just wish Kurt [Vonnegut] were alive." This is like something he would be writing. This is just crazy stuff. I would love to hear his take on it. ~ Susan Sarandon

I'm a conservative Republican, and I'm not a member of the Tea Party Caucus, but I have very good friends that are. ~ Austin Scott

It had long been established in the Civil Worlds that public business was to be transparent, and personal business opaque; but it was as well recognised that the two would always have a turbulent interface, and that the clique, the caucus, and the conspiracy were as ineradicable features of civility as the council or the committee. ~ Ken MacLeod

Senator Allen has long been a leader on competitiveness issues in the Senate and as governor of Virginia. His announcement of the Competitiveness Caucus comes as great news to the nation's manufacturers. We support every item on this agenda and will work with Senator Allen and others to make it a reality. The time has come for Congress to recognize the vital role manufacturing plays in American life and do what it can to strengthen our ability to compete in the global marketplace. ~ John Engler

The Congressional Black Caucus is a moral fraud. It's amazing how many people are afraid of saying that ~ Dennis Prager

The meeting [in San Antonio of the National Women's Political Caucus] featured a cattle show at which a herd of Democratic candidates- Glenn, Cranston, Mondale, Hart, and Hollings- pantingly pantomined their fidelity to feminism, stopping just short of a pledge to use nuclear weapons against any states that omit to ratify the Equal Right Amendment. ~ Daniel Seligman

It is a sign of our times, conspicuous to the coarsest observer, that many intelligent and religious persons withdraw themselves from the common labors and competitions of the market and the caucus, and betake themselves to a certain solitary and critical way of living, from which no solid fruit has yet appeared to justify their separation. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

For the past several years, the Meth Caucus has worked to engage the Office of National Drug Control Policy on this issue. We have tried to get their attention that meth requires a strong, comprehensive Federal policy. ~ Rick Larsen

I'm not surprised that Governor Dean would oppose [the $87 billion to fund Iraq reconstruction] ... I've lost confidence that he has any understanding of the national security responsibilities of a President ... [b]ecause I don't believe that he has any understanding of the international role that the United States has to play in the world. I think it's a kind of a pseudo-isolationism that appeals to the base of the caucus voters. I do not believe that particularly in the case of Iraq that Governor Dean has any fundamental understanding of what's at stake here. ~ John McCain

We don't have a caucus, because we differ on so many views. Some of us are pro-choice, some are not. We'll take the issue of drilling, for example: Lisa Murkowski would want to drill in ANWAR, Maria Cantwell, Barbara Boxer, and most of us would say no, and so we don't. But we get together once a month for dinner, and we have three rules: no memos, no staff, and no leaks; and we get together for friendship. In fact, we're having a dinner tonight. We just have drinks and talk about life and times. ~ Barbara Mikulski

I'm not a Democrat, I'm an Independent, but I caucus with the Democrats. ~ Bernie Sanders

I believe there's about 78 to 81 members of the Democrat Party who are members of the Communist Party. It's called the Congressional Progressive Caucus. ~ Allen West

We have our nominee, and it's is Secretary [Hillary] Clinton. I do hope that Secretary Clinton will take into account the huge resonance of the vision that Senator [Berny] Sanders was putting forward.This has inspired millions of citizens - a style of campaign we've never seen before winning 22 states, extraordinary number of caucuses. Now the challenge is to bring the two halves of the party together. ~ Jeff Merkley

My whole deal is I want to have a principle-based, member-driven caucus. ~ Dan Webster

There is now a desperate need for a London-wide left caucus of those interested in the GLC and local councils so that we can compare and discuss what is happening in each borough. ~ Ken Livingstone

It is a bipartisan gathering to be able to pray for the needs back in our districts, for our families and each other. Another thing the prayer caucus does is to address religious liberty issues around the country as they arise. ~ James Lankford

I have been in the Democratic Caucus in the Senate for over 24 years. ~ Bernie Sanders

If it's necessary to join a caucus and get a committee assignment, I'll do it. ~ Angus King

Pell grants are the foundation of Federal student aid. As someone who attended college with the help of Pell grants and as chairman of the Pell Grant Caucus, I know how important they are for our Nation's low-income students. ~ Ric Keller

I want to caucus in Iowa. I'll caucus all over the state. I don't caucus in California. You don't caucus where you live. It doesn't look good. ~ Pat Paulsen

I love having the support of my caucus. We have a good working relationship. ~ Nancy Pelosi

The enormous power held by each of the southern committee chairmen individually was multiplied by their unity, by what White called a "oneness found nowhere else in politics." The symbol was the legendary "Southern Caucus," the meetings of the twenty-two southern senators which were held in the office of their leader, Richard Brevard Russell of Georgia, whenever crisis threatened - meetings that were, White said, "for all the world like reunions of a large and highly individualistic family whose members are nevertheless bound by one bond." In those meetings, the southern position was agreed upon, its tactics mapped, its front made solid. ~ Robert A. Caro