Well, look, we just voted for $60 billion worth of funding to go down to the Gulf Coast. And I think that one of the good things about this past couple of weeks, in the midst of this tragedy, is seeing how generous the American people are. They don't begrudge spending that money, but they want to make sure that it's spent well.

decide each case on the facts and the merits alone. That is what our Founders intended. Judicial decisions ultimately have to be based on evidence and on facts. They have to be based on precedent and on law.

Now the test for a qualified judicial nominee is not simply whether they are intelligent.

But my job, as a Senator, is to make sure that we're basing these decisions on facts and that I probe and not simply take it on faith that good decisions are being made.

What's the status of our troops, and what's our exit strategy?

So the fact that there is a link somewhere between terror and tyranny is not sufficient for us to be making decisions about spending $200 billion to $300 billion or sacrificing the lives of American servicemen and women.

And we are now going to be spending at least $200 billion in Iraq, and we have lost over 1,300 lives and it is counting.

I think it is to move forward. The concern that many of my constituents in Illinois express is that we went into Iraq, at least in their minds, because of a very specific threat of terror, not tyranny but terror.

it's unlikely that I'd be sitting here asking you questions

if our measure is to bring our troops home, and success is measured by whether Iraqis can secure their own circumstances, and if our best troops in the world are having trouble controlling the situation with 150,000 or so, it sounds like we've got a long way to go.

I never got quite a clear answer to Senator Biden's question as to how many troops, Iraqi troops...