Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am on the floor for a couple of reasons but No. 1 and most important is to congratulate General Smith, Gen. Eric Smith, to be the new Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. Now, the Presiding Officer may have seen the vote--a pretty impressive vote, 96 to 0. That does not happen a lot in the U.S. Senate. But every Senator on the floor just an hour ago gave Gen. Eric Smith a huge vote of confidence--and with good reason. This is a Marine officer who has a stellar career--stellar career. He has commanded at every level in the Marine Corps: as an infantry officer, Weapons Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment. As a general officer, he commanded the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Southern Command, 1st Marine Corps Division, III MEF--Marine Expeditionary Force--and Marine Corps Combat Development Command. That is about as stellar a career as it gets. Additionally, he is a serious combat veteran. As I have noted to my colleagues before, a lot of the flag officers in the military right now were the lieutenants and captains right after 9/11. This is a group of senior military leaders who have seen more combat than certainly almost any other generation since World War II. And General Smith was one of those: wounded in action in Iraq, did not want to go home; frontline commander in combat; served in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, like a lot of commanders during these challenging wars, he had a number of marines and friends killed in action whom he was in command of.…”