Political Quotes

“you know, we are here at this--normally, Thursday night we wouldn't be here under normal circumstances, but we are here because one Member of the Senate has determined to impede the entire national security infrastructure as it relates to the foreign policy of the United States. What we do in the State Department and that which comes through the Committee on Foreign Relations has to do with the essential security of the United States. It is the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that has jurisdiction over global arms sales. It is the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that has jurisdiction over the use of force. It is the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that deals with treaties across the globe. It is the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that deals with the question of nuclear arms and proliferation and so much more. And it is the State Department that perpetuates the national interests and security of the United States in its positions across the globe, both at home, in the first place, but across the globe. Now, I have had plenty, over the course of 30 years of doing foreign policy work between the House and the Senate, and 16 years in the Senate--plenty of moments where I had a fundamental disagreement, a very strong one, with an administration about their policy, but I did not hold up the entire national security infrastructure of the State Department that puts at risk the Nation. I hear all these speeches about security.…”