Chris Dodd: “After I complete my remarks. We still have time to do this right. We should have an opportunity to debate and vote on…”

“After I complete my remarks. We still have time to do this right. We should have an opportunity to debate and vote on all meaningful alternatives to the pending resolution, regardless of parliamentary technicalities. For that reason, I join with my colleague, Senator Byrd, in opposing cloture when we vote on this issue tomorrow. I am not persuaded that the situation is so dire that a few more days or an additional week of deliberations at the U.N. will be harmful to our interests. I have been in this body 22 years. The unique role of the Senate is the role of debate, unlimited debate. It is what makes us fundamentally different from the Chamber down the hall. If there are Members of this body who wish to be heard and wish to offer meaningful ideas to something as critical as this, then asking this body to take a few more days to weigh and discuss those matters ought not to be denied. We are invoking cloture too often. I know people are interested in efficiency, but if efficiency was the only goal of the Founding Fathers, they never would have created this body to begin with. They understood the importance of debate and discussion when a matter of this magnitude and this significance is before the American public.”