Max Baucus: “in my 20 years in the Senate, I have scarcely experienced a more politically trying time than this. As the nation…”

“in my 20 years in the Senate, I have scarcely experienced a more politically trying time than this. As the nation decides how to cope with an unprecedented political crisis, Congress must not only consider impeachment proceedings but pass spending measures to keep our government running. More important, a number of serious foreign policy crises demand our attention. From Kosovo to Iraq and Tanzania to Latin America, the need for American leadership has never been greater. To the extent that we can deal with these issues in a reasoned, bipartisan fashion, the world and the United States stand to gain. More than at any time since the early years of the cold war, the world looks to us as a guarantor of peace in regions from Kosovo to Central Africa to Cambodia and the Persian Gulf; as a leader in the quest for prosperity, as we look toward more fair and open trade and an effective approach to the financial crisis; as the pace-setter in science and technology; and as an example of effective democratic government and respect for human rights. This is a demanding role. We may not have sought it. Some of us may not entirely welcome it. But it is a role that in this post-cold-war world nobody else can fulfill.”