prior to the nomination being taken up, let me say that I met General Petraeus in Iraq. At that time, the Republican leader was Senator Frist, who is a doctor, as we all know. General Petraeus said, ``I want you to take this back to Dr…

We want the American troops protected in Iraq. But for the president to escalate this conflict outside Iraq is something he has to come back and ask us permission to do.

I have had the good fortune in my lifetime, my adult life, to see people for whom I have developed a tremendous respect and admiration, and certainly one of those people is John Kerry. Why? Why would I say that about John Kerry? Why would…

It is very good to have back Reverend Ogilivie, our former Senate Chaplain. A lot of thoughts came to my mind. I sat here for 6 years and listened to almost every one of his prayers. My mind goes back to some of the tragedies that had come…

I rise to pay tribute to Deanna Jensen, a lifelong Nevadan whose commitment to breast cancer advocacy will always be remembered. After her own long but heroic battle against breast cancer, she passed away on January 7. My thoughts and…

also, we are going to take up the minimum wage bill this afternoon. I hope we can finish it this week. There are a lot of things going on. There is a conference going on someplace outside the boundary of the United States. We have a lot of…

I failed to acknowledge the managers of this bill. I apologize to both of them. They have been masterful in working this bill the last 2 weeks. The two managers are going to be involved heavily in getting this through conference. I have so…

This legislation has been extremely difficult to deal with. It is difficult because it directly affects our lives, Members of the Senate. In the short term, this is going to be difficult because we are going to have to get used to the…

I so appreciate the statements of my colleagues who traveled with me to South America. As has been indicated, Bolivia, if not the poorest country in this hemisphere, is the second poorest. You land in an airport, the highest airport in the…

many years ago the Congress created the party institutes to do development work across the world, building democratic institutions from Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa, to the Middle East. They have come such a long way in the time since…

The fallaciousness of this argument is astounding. Line-item veto, the last time it left this body, it went to the U.S. Supreme Court. It was argued before the Supreme Court, dealing with the separation of powers doctrine. Fifteen minutes…

The point is, it was not done. I think that is unfortunate. But the issue before this Senate tonight is whether we are going to move forward with the most significant lobbying and ethics reform, by a large margin, since Watergate. It would…

I still say I think it is a terribly unfortunate day for this Senate that a bipartisan piece of legislation dealing with ethics and lobbying reform that has been cosponsored for the first time in three decades as the first bill brought…

Yes, it was. Why can't we do this at a later time when you have all the time you need? I have told the distinguished Republican leader, we will have your amendment. We will have Carper or something like that. I am not sure Carper is what…

I wish to get this ethics bill done. I think I am being about as reasonable as I can be to set aside a significant amount of time prior to the Easter recess to give you an opportunity to do the line-item veto. And prior to that time, we…

there has been good progress made on ethics and lobbying reform. We have had a good debate. It is time to move to passage of this meritorious legislation. We will have three votes beginning at 5:30 this afternoon. First we will vote on the…

I want to keep this process bipartisan, so I am adopting a number of changes that reflect input and ideas from the Republicans and Democrats, and that is what is in this modification. First, I have adopted an idea from the Senator from…

Everyone keep in mind, the underlying legislation that is bipartisan in nature, sponsored by the Democratic and Republican leaders, is good legislation. It is a significant step forward to anything that has happened in this country since…

I told the President how much I thought of him, personally. I told him, even though my fondness for him is significant, I disagree with a number of his policies, not the least of which is what is going on in Iraq. He announced his new plan…

I agree with the author of those amendments, that we need to take a look at campaign finance reform, but I think it should be done in the right way and that is to have hearings. I believe we need extensive hearings on these matters. And…

Yesterday, we made significant progress on the ethics and lobbying reform bill. This will go a long way toward helping to reduce cynicism about this body. We began debate on the bill. The Republican leader and I offered a strong substitute…

The first measure Senator McConnell and I introduced, S. 1, will be the most significant lobbying and ethics reform bill since Watergate, if nothing else happens. And then we went a step further and, on a bipartisan basis, offered the…

I am very happy the Senate has now begun debate on S. 1. It is a strong, bipartisan package of ethics reforms and will help reassure the American people that we answer to them. The matter now before the Senate, S. 1, without the substitute…

Consultation, to me, means consultation. You sit down and talk with people you're trying to work something out with. Not after you've already written the speech.

The surge is a bad idea. The president said he was going to listen to his commanders. If he's listening to his commanders, he can't do this.