Watson Coleman: “I yield such time to the majority whip as he needs. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The assistant majority leader is recognized.…”

“I yield such time to the majority whip as he needs. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The assistant majority leader is recognized. Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise to speak on the Frist amendment, which is one of the two votes we will have shortly. First, let me say, I regret we are spending an hour and a half of the Senate's time, when we should be debating and completing the Homeland Security bill, engaged in extensive political sparring. The Karl Rove amendment--and that is exactly what it is--richly deserves to be defeated. I certainly would encourage all of our colleagues to vote against that amendment when it is before us shortly. But with regard to the Frist amendment, Senators ought to be especially careful when they repeat unproven allegations about the conduct of our troops, particularly during a time of war. Our enemies can make use of such statements. And their propaganda puts at risk our service men and women who are, of course, out there protecting us every day. Unfortunately, this very thing happened last month when one of our colleagues repeated unproven allegations about our service men and women who were interrogating suspected terrorists. It was reported in the Middle East. It would be hard to believe that it did not do damage to our troops while we continue to fight in the war on terror in that region.…”