Political Quotes

“let me begin by saying I agree with the Senator from Michigan as well as my colleague from Wisconsin in that I believe--and, as the old joke goes, I have history to prove it--that the Senate has in the treaty power in the treaty clause of the U.S. Constitution an equal responsibility with the President of the United States. As the old joke goes, if you want to learn a subject, teach it. For the last 10 years, I have been teaching a three-credit course at the Widener University Law School on Saturday mornings on separation of powers issues. In one of the three parts of the course, ``What is treaty power? And who has what authority under the Constitution?'' I come down clearly on the side that the Senate has the authority to insist that any extension, or withdrawal, for that matter, from a treaty be confirmed by the Senate. We have a right to do that, I believe. But it is an open constitutional question.”