Byron Dorgan: “Iraq is not an irrelevant issue. It is a very important issue. The President will find, as we finish all of these…”

“Iraq is not an irrelevant issue. It is a very important issue. The President will find, as we finish all of these discussions, that we will have a pretty unified voice on what we do around the world, but we need to do that through the United Nations, with other partner countries, as part of a coalition. At the end of the day, this country will have led the way towards that result. It is also the case, when most people sit down around the supper table and talk about their lives, they are talking about subjects that are much different from Iraq. They are discussing issues such as: Do we have a good job; does it pay well; do we have job security; do we send our kids to good schools; do grandpa and grandma have decent health care; do we live in a safe neighborhood? All of those issues exist as well. There are some who don't want to talk about any of those issues. They say: These issues somehow are irrelevant. They are not irrelevant to people out of work, who are concerned about their jobs, concerned about opportunities for themselves and their children, concerned about the ability to buy health care, to pay for health insurance, to afford their prescription medicine.”