Political Quotes

“Let me be very, very blunt, as the Chair knows I usually am, much to my detriment on occasion. This is not about anything, this vote. This vote is really designed to try to come up with a substitute for the chemical weapons treaty--to give people who want to say they voted against chemical weapons an ability, then, to vote against the Chemical Weapons Convention. I know we are supposed to be more diplomatic than that, and I know all that, and I am not suggesting that things in the bill are not worthwhile. They are. But this is what happens after we pass the treaty, that is, the implementing legislation. The way treaties work is, if we pass a treaty like the Chemical Weapons Convention, then we will come back here and pass implementing legislation. Just today, Senator Lugar and I have introduced legislation called the implementing legislation. That is, how do we domestically implement what we have just signed on to internationally.”