The Perception and Reality of the United States Congress

"Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself."
      Mark Twain

"This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets a hold of a hammer."
      Will Rogers

"Congress is functioning the way the Founding Fathers intended - not very well.  They understood that if you move too quickly, our democracy will be less responsible to the majority."
      Representative Barber B. Conable, Jr.

"From early on, everything I did was calculated to being elected to Congress."
      Speaker Carl Albert