U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar heralded ethics reform while addressing convention
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Denver on Monday (Aug. 25) evening.
She spoke of an early introduction to presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as a senator-elect heading to Washington.
“We were barely out of our driveway when I got a call from a certain senator from Illinois, Barack Obama,” said Klobuchar.
“We weren’t even sworn in yet, and he was already determined to break the lock the lobbyists had on Washington. By the time we got to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Barack had all the new senators on a call, and by the time we got to Washington, we had an ethics reform plan in place,” said Klobuchar.
Within months the ethics reform package became law, she said.
“No more golf junkets to Scotland. No more gifts of caviar. No more special discount flights on corporate jets. No more fast track between Capitol Hill and K Street,” she said.
“We said it’s time to stop the insiders’ no-bid military contracts. We said drug company
lobbyists shouldn’t be able to prescribe our health care and that never again will federal energy policy be made from an undisclosed location, “ she said.
“They say that inertia is the most powerful force in the political universe. They say you can’t change Washington. Barack Obama has already started, and he’ll finish the job as president of the United States,” she said.
“At another time in our history, when our nation was hurting and yearning for hope, President Franklin Roosevelt proved that democracy works best when Washington puts the American people first. ‘I never forget,’ he said, ‘that I live in a house owned by all the American people and that I have been given their trust.’”
“My fellow delegates, it’s time to elect a president America can trust. It’s time for the American people to take back their White House. It’s time for change we can believe in,” she said.
“It’s time for Barack Obama,” Klobuchar concluded.
