Bill Delahunt: “The question is, I dare say, who is in charge? For me, it was an interesting Sunday morning when I listened to the…”

“The question is, I dare say, who is in charge? For me, it was an interesting Sunday morning when I listened to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar, again another highly-respected Republican with considerable experience in terms of foreign relations, along with the senior Democrat on the committee, Senator Joe Biden. When Senator Biden made the statement that the President should take charge, and Tim Russet, who happened to be the moderator, asked whether that was good and necessary advice, Senator Lugar, the Republican Senator from the State of Indiana who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said yes, it is, it is very necessary. I concur with my colleague, the President has to be the President, that means the President over the Vice President and other Secretaries. Lugar had just had enough of the administration's divided voices, especially the Vice President's which he described, when referring to the Vice President, 'very, very tough and strident.' To put out an ad in Iowa during a Presidential Campaign suggesting it was either the Democrats or Congress that wanted to retreat on the war on terror, no, that is not the case. None of us want to retreat, we want to win, we do not want to lose, and we are looking at defeat right now.”