Dick Durbin: “we listened to the comments of Senator McConnell, the Republican leader. He has given us a ``litany of horribles'' when…”

“we listened to the comments of Senator McConnell, the Republican leader. He has given us a ``litany of horribles'' when it comes to the conduct of the nation of Iran. He has given us fair warning that this is a country that we cannot trust because of past conduct. I think the point that needs to be made at this moment is I don't disagree with his premise or his conclusion. But I ask him and all others in his similar political position: How can Iran with a nuclear weapon be a better thing for this world, for the Middle East, or for Israel? I think the answer is obvious. That is why the President, in league with our major allies and some not so frequent allies, has brokered an agreement to send in international inspectors to destroy the centrifuges which are building these nuclear weapons, to put a concrete core in the reactor that produces the plutonium, and to continue the inspection of Iran nonstop so that they do not develop a nuclear weapon. That to me is an ultimate positive outcome. Does it cure all of the horribles that have been listed by the Senator from Kentucky? Of course not. But how can he imagine that Iran with its record would be in a better position--or that we would be in a better position--if Iran had a nuclear weapon? I do not think so. That, I think, is the issue before us. I have to harken back to the statement made yesterday by my colleague from Michigan. She is in contact with the family of one of the prisoners being held there.…”