Frank Lautenberg: “there has been almost a raging debate around here these last couple of days on evaluations of what is taking place in…”

“there has been almost a raging debate around here these last couple of days on evaluations of what is taking place in Iraq, where do we stand in this war--almost a war of attrition, as I see it. And included in the reports on deaths, killings, this morning we heard about an explosion, with suicide bombers detonating a bomb in a mosque that killed around 40 people. It is almost a daily thing that we hear and see, the horror of families being torn apart by the loss of a loved one. Children, men, women, it does not matter. It is just universal killing and demolition. It is a terrible act to witness. Now we have some different news that has come about to accompany those stories of horror from Iraq. Everybody now knows that the Vice President's former chief of staff, Scooter Libby, has been indicted as part of the investigation into the leak of classified material from the White House. I remember when this controversy broke. President Bush acted incredulous that anyone would leak classified national security information. In fact, in September 2003, the President said: There's just too many leaks, and if there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. But now we find out--I think embarrassingly for the President, embarrassingly for the United States--we now find out that the President himself was ordering a leak of classified material. And he leaked that classified information for political reasons.…”