Jim Inhofe: “something happened last Thursday in the Senate Armed Services Committee that many of us tried to stop, but we were…”

“something happened last Thursday in the Senate Armed Services Committee that many of us tried to stop, but we were unsuccessful. The weekend is over now. All we have heard from the liberal media and from the Democrats is: Republican rebellion, Republican rebellion, Republican rebellion--it has kind of a ring to it--a rebellion against President Bush. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. It is not a Republican rebellion against the President. It is a Democratic denial to the President of that which he begged Congress for, and that was the ability to interrogate terrorists in order to save American lives, to use whatever methods available within the guidelines of the U.S. Supreme Court to get this stuff done. I was at the White House when he made his presentation. I was sitting closer to him than I am to the Chair right now. I have never seen him with such an earnest plea in his heart pouring out because he wanted to have that ability to save American lives. What passed the committee Thursday was the Democrats' program of leniency for the enemy, to be sure our interrogators don't get too aggressive with the terrorists, and also to tell the enemy what methods we will use so they can write their own manual. Republican rebellion? Not hardly. It was the Democratic bill, and they got four Republicans to go along with it. But 100 percent of the Democrats voted for it. Nine of us Republicans on the committee spoke and voted against it--all Republicans.…”