Working Together

Floor Speech

WORKING TOGETHER -- (Senate - November 19, 2008)

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, that was quite a letter. I must say, to be here for this historic moment, my heart is racing. We heard the letter from the President-elect resigning from the Senate. This is, indeed, a moment of passage in the Senate and for the country. By Senator Obama's resignation from the duty and responsibility the people of Illinois gave him, it is one more step for him to pick up the responsibilities of the Presidency of the United States. I will cherish this moment because it will be a historic moment, from ``We need change'' and ``Yes, we can'' on the long campaign trail to election night, to a charismatic speech calling us to act like an American community, not only a country of which we are proud, a nation we hold dear, but an American community. That is the Obama message which I hope will be the Obama effect. As our President-elect lays down these duties and takes up others, we need to realize and respond to his call and a new American mandate. Because on November 4, we who hold Federal office received a new American mandate to change the tone, to change the direction, to change the priorities, and to be able to move on and get our economy rolling and bring our troops back home and restore our national honor in the world.

Sign me up. Sign me up as an enthusiastic member of this effort. I accept that mandate. I accept it. I call upon all my colleagues to do the same, to embrace the message Senator Obama has set, not only in terms of a dynamic, robust agenda but how we will work with each other. I thought it was grand that he sat down with our colleague from Arizona, Senator McCain, to talk about how they could work together, how they could find that common ground, how we could find that sensible center between what we want to do and what we can afford to do. That is the tone Obama set with McCain. Let's set it now with Reid and McConnell. Let's try to find common ground, that sensible center, pragmatic, affordable solutions we can do now. We have a window. We have a time. As President-elect Obama said: This is our time. Our time doesn't begin January 20. Our time doesn't begin January 6. This is our time now to lay the groundwork for the transition of power, to work together. I ask us now, as we look at the stimulus package, as we look at solutions for our manufacturing area, how to extend the safety net for those people who are already hurting: Let's do that.

Right now, once again, back to business as usual, entangled in a parliamentary quagmire, digging in our heels, based on rigid ideology. That is not what the people said on November 4. They said they wanted change, and they want it now. Let it begin with us, civilized debate, the clash of ideas to find that sensible center. By the way, that phrase is not mine. That phrase is Colin Powell's, a great American.

There it is, right there is the center. I am ready to walk over to it. Come on over, I say to the other side.

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