Robert Torricelli: “Members of the Senate, we are about to cast a vote that we will remember for many years. I know the issue of the day is…”

“Members of the Senate, we are about to cast a vote that we will remember for many years. I know the issue of the day is the farm crisis in the Midwest. The answer to that problem is in this market, in this Senate, not by changing a fundamental of American foreign policy. The issue today may be the farm crisis, but last year and the years before that, it has been the war against terrorism. My amendment is simple. We have lifted the American embargo against selling food and medicine unless--unless--you are from a country that is engaged in terrorism against the United States of America. Mr. Qadhafi does not deserve, tomorrow morning, to wake up and find out we forgot about Pan Am 103; or Castro, with his political prisoners; nor should we end with North Korea our actions just when we are negotiating the control of atomic weapons. I know the frustration of my colleagues from the Midwest, but these nations, with per capita incomes of $100, $200, $300, they are not buying agricultural products from anyone in the world, so they are not going buy them from us, because they have no money, because they are failing Marxist regimes. For 30 years, this country has held the line that on human rights and on actions of terrorism against our country we would not deal with them. Things are so close, the handful of Marxist regimes that are left--the handful--do not throw them a lifeline.…”