Political Quotes

“I thank the chairman of the full committee for yielding me time. I have total respect for my colleague and friend from New York who authored this amendment, but I believe on this one this amendment is misguided and we should defeat it. This does not call for a declaration of war or any kinds of the, I think exaggerated responses I've heard in favor of this amendment. This says that the President should have a course of action. The President earlier stated that there are red lines concerning weapons of mass destruction. I believe, if the news today is correct, then belatedly maybe there is a step toward recognizing that and taking some action for red lines just in the last few hours. But we've been working on this amendment, we debated it in committee, because up until now, and even going forward--I'm not sure how much-- there hasn't been very much planning. There hasn't been a stated plan or a course of action by the administration. We need to have that in place. We can and should and will debate this further. But the administration, I believe, has been lacking in leadership--too much leading from behind, as we've seen in other places. There needs to be leadership. This is a volatile area of the world--there's no question about that. That doesn't mean, though, that we can be disengaged. We can't just throw our hands up and withdraw and put our heads in the sand. We have allies in the region, especially Israel. Israel needs to be supported and defended.…”