Jim Inhofe: “I am not here, people will be glad to know, to talk about Judge Alito. I am here as an assignment. Serving on the Senate…”

“I am not here, people will be glad to know, to talk about Judge Alito. I am here as an assignment. Serving on the Senate Armed Services Committee, as is the keeper of the chair, I have been there for quite a number of years. I have taken the assignment of giving a grade as to what President Bush, prior to his State of the Union Message tomorrow night, has done in the way of national security and national defense. I am proud to say that I am very proud of the job he has done. In doing this, what I would like to do is break it down into three segments. First, I want to talk about the problems this President inherited when he became President in terms of our national security; second, the solutions, the very impressive solutions so far to these problems; and third, the challenges he has for the future, for the next 2 or 3 years. In doing this, I know I will come across as being very partisan. Quite frankly, when we are dealing with national defense, I am quite partisan. I think the most important thing we have to do here is to keep America strong, make sure that we have a strong national defense system. I hate to say it, but that becomes a partisan issue. However, it is too serious of an issue to try to be diplomatic, so I will not attempt to be diplomatic tonight. I will be dealing with the truth. Winston Churchill said: Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, malice may destroy it, but there it is.…”