Dr. Seuss is quite the popular guy in Congress these days, as two Senate Democrats quoted from the famed author’s book The Lorax during a Monday night climate change talkathon on the Senate floor.
Taking a page out of Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) playbook — who read the entirety of Green Eggs and Ham to his daughters during a faux filibuster on Obamacare last year — Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) quoted a section from The Lorax about an hour before midnight. He acknowledged that Dr. Seuss’ works have received some attention on the Senate floor, before reading a portion from the end of the book.
“‘But now,’ says the Once-ler. ‘Now that you’re here, the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear,'” Markey read from a copy of the book. “‘Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not.'”
Markey thanked his fellow Democratic Senators for caring and promised that there would be a “big fight” over climate change so that future generations would know that the Senate had done something about it.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal also referenced The Lorax during his time on the floor early on Tuesday morning.
More than 20 Senators, mostly Democrats, participated in the marathon talking session on climate change. Participants included Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Angus King (I-Maine) also spoke. The whole talkathon ended around 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning, after continuing for more than 14 hours. It was the 35th all-night session in Senate history.
In case you’re in the mood for the whole book, here it is:
)
(h/t The Hill)
