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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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