Mark Dayton: “last week, in a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I listened to some of the most disturbing testimony I…”

“last week, in a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I listened to some of the most disturbing testimony I have heard in my entire almost 3 years now in the Senate. Testifying were members of a congressional panel investigating the sexual harassment charges raised at the U.S. Air Force Academy. The hearing, which is the third one this year on this matter, is a great credit to its chairman, Senator Warner. There is no one in this body for whom I have greater respect than the senior Senator from Virginia, now in his 25th year of outstanding service to the State of Virginia and to our Nation. He and his colleague of 25 years, Senator Levin of Michigan, don't always agree, but they always work cordially and constructively together to lead that committee and establish a bipartisan or nonpartisan relations way. As former Secretary of the Navy, the chairman, who strongly supports the services, clearly does not relish in this kind of critical review of one of the Academies. He does not evade it either. To the contrary, he faced up to it responsibly and resolutely, which led to the hearing last week and to another one scheduled for tomorrow.”