Understanding the danger of combining religion and politics, our founding fathers wisely created a political system based on individual merit and religious inclusiveness,

And quit bringing up our forefathers and saying they were civil libertarians. Our founding fathers would have never tolerated any of this crap. For God's sake, they were blowing peoples' heads off because they put a tax on their breakfast beverage. And it wasn't even coffee.

Many of the founding fathers either traveled through or at some point stayed here in our city.

Could anyone look into the faces of (the founding fathers) and tell them it really doesn't matter that the president abused his power, lied to the American people, perjured himself and subverted the rule of law? Anyone who can answer yes to that question does not have the right to sit here today.

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.

Our Founding Fathers, who are cited so frequently and appropriately on this floor, believed deeply that a successful democracy and a viable democracy requires an educated and engaged citizenry. I am confident that by adhering to high standards of achievement and accountability, we will produce an education system worthy of their great hopes.