Ben Cardin

If times aren't ripe, you have to ripen the times.

We need to figure out how we can make sure that our military are fully empowered, all voters are fully empowered during the 2010 elections.

It is one thing to make sure that people are not discriminated against. It is another to pressure banks to make loans that are not sound.

I have tried to work with members of the Judiciary Committee to increase the information made available to the FBI.

Well, thank you. I certainly support that.

The number of people who are fraudulently voting is minuscule compared to those who are eligible to vote.

It is an important institution, and it is one that should be in the forefront of advocacy for the civil rights of all Americans.

My request is that if you believe you need stronger tools, please let us know.

This should be a national priority, to make sure that it is clear that we have the capacity of the Federal Government to support our States.

I would hope that we would try to be empowering people to vote who are eligible to vote.

I think that the Chairman is right to recognize that politics is inappropriate in the Department and politics can be evident from both sides of the aisle, certainly, and we need to be concerned.

Well, that is unfortunately consistent with the information that I think each of us has observed in our own communities, and it is clearly a circumstance that we need to take aggressive action, and we thank you for the manner in which you…

The segregation of people--the unnecessary segregation of people with disabilities in institutions is equally illegal and must be stemmed.

The rolls should be accurate.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has supplied information to this Committee that shows an increase in hate crime activities.

Any type of intimidation should be dealt with.

I share your concern about what we can do to help, and it is frustrating that we cannot move faster to provide the opportunities for all the people in this country.

This does not bode well for an administration that has promised to be open and transparent, it seems to me.

I cannot--you know, civil rights principles need to be professionally analyzed.

I would just urge you--this is an issue that is difficult for us to defend when we do not have anything to defend, we do not have a policy to defend.

If we do not put sunlight on it, if we do not open this process up, if we do not engage the international community, and if we do not engage the international community on how we are going to deal with detainees in the future, this war is…

Let me just repeat the 9/11 Commission's recommendation that the United States engage its friends and develop a common coalition approach toward detention and humane treatment of captured terrorists.

Guantanamo Bay has to close.

When should we expect some specifics as to how these procedures are being handled?

I would argue as a taxpayer that for that $40 billion a year it would be entirely appropriate for us to have a policy statement that says this is how we want our money to be used and our roads to be built.