As departing senators said their goodbyes to Washington, a number of Democrats and Republicans took the opportunity to express concern about the state of the Senate and the political climate.
“All the evidence points to an unsettling truth: The Senate as an institution is in crisis,” retiring Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah lamented in his farewell speech delivered on the Senate floor.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, who was defeated in the November midterm elections, echoed that idea when she delivered her own farewell speech. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was worried about this place,” she said. “It just doesn’t work as well as it used to.”
“Something is broken,” the Missouri Democrat went on to say. “If we don’t have the strength to look in the mirror and fix it, the American people are going to grow more and more cynical.”
As senators who were either ousted in the elections or […]
The absolute last thing we need is Democrats compromising or finding common ground
with Republicans.