    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
    [January 20, 1995]
    [Page 64]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Exchange With Reporters on Loan Guarantees for Mexico
    January 20, 1995

        Q. Mr. President, what do you say to Congressman Leach, who suggests
    that the partisanship, the bickering over Speaker Gingrich's book deal
    is poisoning the atmosphere and not allowing this Mexican package to go
    through?
        The President. Well, of course, he has been in Washington many more
    years than I have, but in the 2 years that I have been here, I have seen
    an unusual amount of partisan bickering. But it didn't stop us from
    passing GATT, from dealing with NAFTA, from dealing with the urgent
    problems in Russia that we confronted when I came here early on, and
    from pursuing a course in the Middle East that is having a very positive
    result, from doing any number of other things that were critical to the
    national interest. And it can't stop us now.
        We have to do what we always do in these cases. We have to act, act
    quickly, act with dispatch, and put the national interest first. That's
    what we all have to do.

    Note: The exchange began at 11:44 a.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the
    White House, following the taping of the President's radio address.