Political Quotes

“I object. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard. Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, last week, I proposed giving the Intelligence Committee the time it would need to work toward the kind of bipartisan legislative compromise Americans deserve--a compromise that would preserve important counterterrorism tools necessary to protect American lives. That effort was blocked. Just now, I proposed an even narrower extension that would have only extended some of the least controversial--least controversial--but still critical tools to ensure they do not lapse as Senators work toward a more comprehensive legislative outcome. But even that very narrow offer was blocked. I think it should be worrying for our country because the nature of the threat we face is very serious. It is aggressive, it is sophisticated, it is geographically dispersed, and it is not--not--going away. As the LA Times reported, ``the Obama administration has dramatically stepped up warnings of potential terrorist attacks on American soil after several years of relative calm.'' The paper reported that this is occurring in the wake of ``FBI arrests of at least 30 Americans on terrorism-related charges this year in an array of `lone wolf' plots.'' So these aren't theoretical threats. They are not theoretical threats. They are with us every day. We have to face up to them.…”