Chuck Schumer: “Both sides debated strongly in a heartfelt way. The Nation voted to go to war. Whatever side you were on, it seemed to…”

“Both sides debated strongly in a heartfelt way. The Nation voted to go to war. Whatever side you were on, it seemed to me by having the debate, by keeping the invective aside--I do not remember the previous President George Bush ever using lines like that. After the debate, the vote was close, I believe, in both bodies. It certainly was in the House. The American people were more unified. There was a feeling that everyone had their point of view, that everything was explored. I would say to my friend from California, at every townhall meeting about Iraq, and I have had a bunch of them around the State, they say you must know something we do not know. There must be some secret. I have attended a few of the classified briefings and obviously would not want to disclose what is in there, but I say to them, no, as to the basic broad facts, not any kind of detail that would involve security, but the basic broad facts are known to every American because they are in the newspapers. There are no hidden, deep, dark secrets, at least that I am aware of. Maybe there are that we do not know about. But in a democracy, you cannot go to war this way. You cannot say if you are a leader of the country, I know something you do not know, when you are sending the sons and daughters of America to be put in harm's way.”