Dan Webster Power Quotations

I have a problem with the way the House is run. I believe that a few people at the top of a pyramid of power have controlled this place for a long time.

Power tends to protect itself merely to maintain its own status and control. Principle gives up power for the sake of creating the best public policy.

Power says if you are a committee chairman, your idea is good only because you have got power.

Power focuses on self-preservation; principle focuses on making ideas successful.

Principle says it's not who put forth an idea. It's not the position of the person who put forth an idea; it's not the longevity of the person or the party of the person. That's not what it is at all. In a power system, that's the way it works. But in a principle system, it's what it says.

If principles don't determine what you are going to pass or do, then power will.

If you push down that pyramid of power and spread out the base, every member gets a chance to file their bill and have it heard and file their amendment and have it heard, as opposed to the system that we have now, which closes out, closes down bills, limits debate, and so forth.

I changed that system in Florida when I was the Speaker of the House - I was the Minority Leader; I saw for 16 years the way a power system works.