President who made the last appointment. That really touched me because i believe that when a president makes an appointment, the whole Political Landscape of the court changes. He is going to pick someone that shares similar viewpoints. Another thing that he said was that justice is relative. He said his job is not to define justice, that is our representatives jobs, and ultimately, our job. Because we elect the representatives. That was my high point. We are going to get some more involved in this. One of the things about the media, and i am sure you have observed this, the media sets the agenda. You tune on your television, you watch television and watched the news cast and the media tells you what is the most important thing. This morning, we are going to turn it on you and im going to pick somebody and ask you to tell us what you want to hear from this group so you can set the agenda. Somebody in the room that wants to set the agenda of this discussion, put your hand up. [laughter
President kennedy. H president kennedy launchedeven before he his historic president ial campaign, jfk told an audience in baltimore, let us not despair, but act. Let us not seek the republican answer or the democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future. No politician knew better the importance of bipartisanship. We are honored to have with us today the light of senator kennedys light and the Guiding Light of the Edward M Kennedy institute. She is a brilliant attorney and writer and a vision for senator kennedys incredible c. It is my great pleasure to friend. E my good thank you, heather. That you so much for gracious introduction and congratulations on being named the new ceo of the jfk library foundation. All of us are so excited about your leadership your. Those of here. Those of us for the edward m the u. S. Ociety for senate, we are thrilled to have a neighbor. And mass archives, Columbi
Mr. Franken madam president . The presiding officer the senator from minnesota. Mr. Franken i would ask that the quorum call be vitiated. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Franken madam president , i have eight unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during todays session of the senate. They have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. I ask unanimous consent that these requests be agreed to and that these requests be printed in the record. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Frank enmr. Franken madam , im just going to come out and say it. Citizens united was one of the worst decisions in the history of the Supreme Court. It was a disaster, a radical exercise of procorporate judicial activism. It was seriously flawed, both legally and factually. Legally, the court trampled its own precedence. Cases like austin v. Michigan chamber of commerce and mcconnell v. Federal elections commission, which had been on the books for years and stood for the o
The federal government. Hes been very active and interested in particularly researching the seat of government. Hes been the author of many book and articles. Throughout most of his professional life, hes been the coeditor of documentary history of First Federal congress. I do want to say one thing about one of his books, which i think is a real classic now, thats the creation of washington, d. C. , which is published back in 1991. If anybody wants to know about behind the scenes and proceedings and meetings and all the things that went on in terms of the location of national capital, this book is a must read. Id like you to welcome kenneth bolling. [ applause ] thank you, bill. Rather than thank the individual organizations, i just want to say i think most of us would agree that this conference just rocks. [ laughter ] i would like to thank in particular the editor of our papers for the fine job they are doing. Fiona griffin and marsha anderson. [ applause ] one of the things i have i
Now, admittedly, in the summer of 1811, madison knew that george, iii,s old ministers were not likely to ease up. Now, this prediction would come to pass. Now, how do we know this . We know this because of an editorial in the administration newspaper. Oh, sorry. Okay. All right. I wasnt looking behind me. Yes. Onwards and upwards. Yes, how do we know this . Because an editorial in the newspaper, the national intelligence, the newspaper that coburn trashed when he burned washington in 1814, it said as much. And we know from a surviving fragment of the diary of the paper, joseph gales, that madison had dictated the contents of that editorial to the editor. So what that means is that as early as the spring of 1811, madison was considering very seriously the need to go to war with Great Britain. And this is seven months before the 12th congress and the war hawks even meet in washington. They would continue with these policies for as long as it took r took for them to end this abomination o