Sherwood Boehlert: “what is the rush? That question was asked of me Monday evening following the President's speech. It was asked of me last…”

“what is the rush? That question was asked of me Monday evening following the President's speech. It was asked of me last week and the week before and the week before. As a matter of fact, it was first posed to me by a thoughtful questioner at a League of Women Voters candidates forum in Cortland, New York, some 7 weeks ago. My answer to him then was the same answer I give to everyone now. There is no rush. The President is prudent, measured and firm in dealing with a decade of defiance, deception and bad faith on the part of Saddam Hussein, who has repeatedly ignored U.N. resolutions and turned his back on agreements that he himself embraced. There is widespread agreement with the President. The time for denying, deceiving and delay is over. Iraq has a chemical and biological weapons capability which can be launched at a moment's notice and is in the process of acquiring a nuclear capability. From my vantage point as chairman of the Committee on Science, I am familiar with the havoc that can be wreaked with chemical and biological weapons; and as a senior member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, I am most familiar with the evidence that Saddam Hussein has an accelerated program to acquire a nuclear capability. The case has been made. The question is, what do we do about it? In my view, the President is going about it in the correct way.”