Joe Biden

But in fairness, did we not publicly say we would not, we would not make those guarantees?

I will not beat a dead horse, but I will get from the record the early statements, if my memory serves me correctly, of the Secretary of Defense about expansion of ISAF, before we had any discussions with anybody, about our unwillingness…

My frustration has existed from this time a year ago in Bagram to today.

I have seen the transition, to use the popular phrase, a morphing of the policy.

And the guy who sweeps the barracks floor, according to Green Berets we have talked to, gets paid more money.

I think our credibility is at stake, we have a government there we obviously can work with.

I very strongly support your opening statement that if we are able to help Afghanistan transition into a secure democracy we will bolster our ability to attract allies in the war against terrorism.

Afghanistan is the first test in the global war on terrorism, and we cannot fail.

If that is how we define it, you are right, we are approaching stability.

I need at some point a clear definition from the administration of what constitutes the mission, the mission.

Give me a break, Mr. Rodman. You cannot, Karzai cannot, go outside of Kabul. There is no stability.

It frustrates the devil out of me, as you can tell, by us sort of sugar-coating this.

We have made progress. Americans are out there risking their lives every single day.

There is no stability in Afghanistan as we defined it initially.

What bothers me is the administration redefinition of what constitutes security and stability.

The mandate was a central government controlling all of Afghanistan that was multi-ethnic and violence-free.

Not one single solitary surrounding country has any faith there will be a central government--none, n-o-n-e, and both of you know it.

We did it for the sake of the people of Afghanistan, but we also did it for the sake of our own national security.

We have a great deal of work left to do in Afghanistan.

We did it to prevent Afghanistan's future from becoming a replay of its past.

But none of this will make much of a difference without security, and security is jeopardized, in my view, by the administration's decision not to seek an expansion of the U.N.-mandated peacekeeping force.

I understand my name was invoked when someone raised the issue of whether or not we had three--not unqualified but controversial nominees, all in one hearing, and that Biden did it. The three that Biden put together had a vote of, I think…

But did not you argue that it does have a role in making a judgment whether it impacts, but in order for you to reach the conclusion that it did not impact interstate commerce, you had to fundamentally disregard the 100 hours of hearings…

At what point does the Court decide to become the Federal traffic cop?

I wish the U.S. Supreme Court would take more cases.