Political Quotes

“it is clear now that this body is going to approve retroactive immunity for the telecom industry, which may have helped the President to illegally spy on millions of Americans. I have spoken on this issue now for I think in excess of 20 hours, going back 2 months ago when this issue first came to the floor in December. Just to recall the history of the last couple of months briefly, if I may: Two committees of the Senate, appropriately, had jurisdiction over this matter--the Intelligence Committee and the Judiciary Committee. In fact, the House of Representatives similarly had two committees with jurisdiction over this matter, the matter being the amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. I have talked at length about the history of that act and commended our previous colleagues who served in this body for having crafted a rather ingenious piece of legislation that architecturally created the balance between security and liberty in the wake of the Watergate scandal in the mid-1970s. Democrats and Republicans came together and said: How can we guarantee that we can gather information to keep our Nation safe and secure from those who would do us harm and simultaneously protect the more than two centuries of liberties and rights that Americans have come to associate with our Constitution--the rule of law?”