Joe Lieberman

We have to be careful about overreaction.

It, as always, is a pleasure to work with you.

We are conducting this investigation because we believe it is our responsibility to do so according to law and Senate rules.

I assured them that our Committee understood and respected the difference between their criminal investigation and our congressional investigation.

Well, thank you, Mr. Silber. Just two quick comments.

Most of these plots, except for the ones that were lone wolves such as the Little Rock case and presumably Major Hasan's case, at least what we know of him now, were true groups and have been stopped.

I am not here to second-guess the hard-working public servants who investigated this case, but to offer, based on my experience, how we might improve the system and better protect our men and women in uniform.

The purpose of this Committee's investigation is to determine whether that attack could have been prevented.

Our challenge is to make sure that we have not allowed new silos to build up.

The number of Muslim-Americans involved in these plots is quite small.

Congress is not willing to take short-term pain for long-term gain, period.

I hope that this Committee and my colleagues do not make the mistake we too often make around here of letting the perfect get in the way of the good.

Our failure to act now will guarantee that they are right.

We strongly believe, as part of the debate to increase the debt limit, Congress needs to put in place a special process that allows Congress and the administration to face up to our Nation's long-term fiscal imbalances and allows for…

The system is broken. In my 29 years in Congress, I have never... seen more partisanship and divisive Congress than I have today.

What really troubles me about this is the matter that we have talked about, which is the difficulty and really ultimately the impossibility of exercising our oversight authority with regard to people in the White House

Well done. Very important question.

A democracy requires accountability, and accountability requires transparency.

We both share a desire to do something about this to help Congress uphold our constitutional responsibility for oversight.

This is a no-brainer for us in terms of a good deal for the Federal taxpayer.

Simply put, end to end, extending benefits to same-sex partners is a good, sound business decision.

Providing Federal employees with domestic partner benefits will bring us a significant step closer to the principle of equality under the law.

It is a good point, and it is certainly validated by the differing opinions among different age groups on questions of gay rights generally, including this one.

Just as important, this bill shows that we recognize the value of every American family and are committed to the ideal of equal treatment under the law that our Founding Fathers envisioned.

I think there is significance in that.