I've described it as Dick Cheney's 'Little Shop of Legal Horrors.'

The firewall between the White House and the Department of Justice.

This is a man of really exceptional experience. This is a man who has been a U.S. attorney, who has been a Federal judge, who has been the Deputy Attorney General of the United States--the No. 2 position in this Department, and who, by all…

If something is going to change, we in Congress have to change it. We need to do it now and we need to do it in a way that sticks.

if we do not get this solved through technology, through systems reform, through better quality care, through a more rational payment system, then we will get to the edge of that cliff.

The success of that Chronic Care Model is completely dependent upon payment reform.

We are on a very bad glide slope for health care in this country with a $30-plus trillion liability just for Federal health care benefits that is totally unfunded.

One is with a very bloody toolbox comprised of benefits cuts, throwing people off coverage, paying providers less, and raising taxes.

Those of us who have been watching this thing for a while have seen this number move.

it is going to be a nightmare.

Thirty-plus trillion dollars is an astonishing liability to have to face, and I believe that there are only two ways to face it.

Now the model is Thelma and Louise, and we are all in the car, and the cliff is right in front of us.

One of the things that I come across pretty frequently...is that when people have chronic or multiple illnesses...their appetite for electronic health records is very high.

Take diabetes alone. I think that is probably a chronic illness for which having good tools for patients would clearly benefit patients and reduce costs and improve quality of life.

I could not agree with you more about that.

My experience is that over and over and over again we've seen official secrecy used not for national security purposes but to mislead the public and to frame or more particularly mis-frame an outside political debate.

We have, during my brief tenure on this Committee, over and over again seen alarming, appalling leaks of classified information.

It suggests to me that there is a significant lack of energy and interest within the intelligence community in truly policing this stuff.

I was touched and impressed. I know he's not here any longer, but I would like to say that for the record anyway.

We in the Senate have the good fortune and privilege to be present at occasionally extraordinary moments.

The tainting--some would even say corruption--of the Department of Justice during the course of this administration has been both pervasive and systematic.

I think OMB was the political fixer for the Administration in the agency regulatory process in the past.

The entire agency process had in effect been a sham, that the result was willful ignorance triumphant.

I appreciate the opportunity to be with you.

Yes, I am sort of preaching to the choir here, I am sure.