Quotes About Bipartisanship

I am a proud moderate republican. But I like democrats as well.

I think liberals would love to see the conservative party be more moderate, more middle of the road. I mean, my gosh, what do you call John McCain? Some would argue, what do you call Mitt Romney?

I think, more than anything, in times of crisis we should be shedding party labels.

I believe in the two-party system.

There's a high level of frustration with the two-party system out there.

A two-party system is way too good for those two parties.

We have a two-party system that I think can work well if people make an effort.

I think the two-party system isn't working for us. And it hasn't worked for us for generations - let's be very, very honest about that.

I believe in a strong two-party system, and when one party is losing so spectacularly, it emboldens the other party to overreach and become a cartoon of itself, invoking awful things like - I'm just spit-balling here - child separation policies and trade wars.

I ended up working on over 150 political campaigns in 42 states; over a third of those were for Republicans. I want to be clear about that. Approximately two-thirds were for Democrats, so, I worked on both sides of the aisle, across the United States.

We can't allow ourselves to descend down the rabbit hole of unbridled partisanship for partisan sake.

When a country is at war we want Congressmen, regardless of party, to back up the government of the United States.

There's no better sight than when I look out from the speaker's rostrum and see a group of Republicans and Democrats who sit in a couple of rows together, laughing together. It is just - it sounds a little silly - but it's just an amazing, great sight.

I am perfectly happy to compromise and work with anybody: Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians - I'll work with Martians if - and the if is critical - they're willing to cut spending and reduce the debt.

When I was a Republican governor, he was obviously a Democratic president, but on issue after issue after issue, President Obama was very helpful to us in education, in the environment, with the handling of the BP oil spill.

I do have friends that are Republicans, and we have very spirited conversations on a whole range of issues. I am often baffled by why they are Republicans, but I enjoy the dialogue and can move beyond politics to find common ground in my personal relationships.

Where people are trying to split Americans from each other I want there desperately to be bipartisanship.

I remember George W. Bush, who spoke about bringing the country together. Here's a man who knew that he lost the popular vote but ended up with the Electoral College vote. He had lost that, and he spoke in a very inclusive way of bringing Republicans and Democrats together. It reflected what a president should do.

Having served as the majority spokesman for the House Ways and Means Committee after Republicans took the House in 1994, I've seen the promise and the peril of divided government before.

I like a lot of my Republican colleagues, starting with my friend from Indiana, Senator Lugar. We've had an excellent relationship.

Partisan politicians] seek to incite political support or raise money by pitting us against each other on issues . . . because they know that by igniting heated arguments, the issues are less likely to be solved and their careers are more likely to be secure. Every time you vote "against" someone rather than "for" someone the two-party system wins and America loses.

The fact that Obama is getting criticism from the left and the right might reflect his understanding of the underlying political dynamics.

I believe politics is a team sport. That, for awful and unfortunate reasons beyond any of our control, the American system only allows, effectively, for two teams.

I'm always looking for people on the other side of the aisle for any initiative I'm sponsoring - men and women - to move things forward.