Political Quotes

“earlier today the majority and minority cooperated in the vitiation of a unanimous-consent agreement under which a landmark international agreement, the Chemical Weapons Convention, was to have been considered. I hope very much that the Senate will be able to return to that treaty under more favorable circumstances. It is important to understand that the treaty had been subjected to a barrage of criticism in recent weeks--some of it apparently motivated by a simple desire to kill the treaty. As a result the treaty's merits were somewhat obscured. The Senate's former majority leader, former Senator Robert Dole, the Republican Party's current candidate for President, expressed certain reservations yesterday. Mr. Dole indicated that he would only support the treaty if we had high confidence that our intelligence community would detect violations and that the treaty will be truly global and include such parties as Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, and North Korea. In the context of the Dole comments it became clear that the Senate would probably have to consider two amendments offered by the majority as provided for in the unanimous-consent agreement.”