Joe Lieberman: “I want to ask my friend from Michigan or my friend from Maryland to explain how you relate two parts of the Levin…”

“I want to ask my friend from Michigan or my friend from Maryland to explain how you relate two parts of the Levin amendment. One, yes, does say you affirm the right of the U.S. to self-defense, but then, two sections lower, it seems to me, you cut a very big exception, and you say ``pursuant.'' And because you say ``pursuant,'' I assume it means only pursuant to a U.N. Security Council resolution can the President authorize the use of ``the Armed Forces of the United States to destroy, remove, or render harmless Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons-usable material, ballistics missiles . . . and related facilities. . . .'' So it is one thing to affirm the general right of self-defense, but then the amendment takes it away with regard to what we all acknowledge is the most serious threat that Iraq constitutes to the U.S., which is weapons of mass destruction.”