Political Quotes

“I think the ranking member has made a number of very important points here. The fact of the matter is that we are all here because the majority leader wasn't able to defeat the surveillance reform. So instead, he has chosen to introduce amendments designed to water it down. I am disappointed by this. I will oppose all of these amendments, and I want to have a colloquy briefly with the ranking minority member. The ranking minority member and our colleague from Connecticut, Senator Blumenthal, have done very good reform work with respect to the FISA Court. In particular, what the distinguished Senator from Vermont has done, with the help of the Senator from Connecticut, is to bring some very important sunshine and transparency to the court. As my two colleagues have pointed out on the Judiciary Committee, we really meet on the major questions--not all of them, as the Senator from Vermont has just said--but what is really needed is to make sure that both sides get a chance to be heard, not just the government side. So what troubles me--and I am interested in the reaction of my colleague from Vermont, and I want to praise him and my colleague from Connecticut--is that it seems to me that what the Senate majority leader wants to do is basically to take us back to the days of secret law. What is important, as we get into this, and particularly with this amendment, is that there is a difference between secret operations and secret law. Operations always have to be kept secret.…”