Political Quotes

“very briefly, first I express my thanks to Senator Collins and Senator Lieberman for their help. They always go out of their way to help me and I am very appreciative of it. My only substantive point, because we are going to work very closely, touches on the matter that our distinguished Chair made with respect to the executive branch having concerns about this issue. Every executive branch, whether it be controlled by Democrats or Republicans, will be concerned about this issue. What troubles the four of us is, whether a Democrat is President or a Republican is President, is that there are employees who can take a big old stamp, mark something ``secret,'' and then there is no independent review at all. That has been abused, in our view, on a bipartisan basis. It has been abused by administrations when they were run by Democrats. It has been abused when there have been administrations run by Republicans. What the four Senators seek to do--now five, with the gracious help of the distinguished Senator from Texas--we seek to strike a balance between the President and the Congress. What I say to the distinguished chairman of the committee, who makes a good point as to the executive branch, as the four of us talked about this issue--Senator Lott, Senator Snowe, Senator Graham, and myself--we felt we would give the President, the executive branch, the first word and the last word on an issue with respect to classification.”