Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to end what I think has been a very good debate. Senator Feinstein--and I know she is busy--said something on the floor that I wish to reiterate: that the second amendment which Senator Durbin just suggested we have reached a compromise on, I am fully committed to making sure it stays in the conference report. Some folks in the House may have a problem, but I think it is good, sound law. The goal for me has never been to change the law, to put an American citizen more at risk than they are today. It is just to keep the status quo and acknowledge from the point of view of the Congress that the Obama administration's decision to detain people as enemy combatants lies within the President's power to do so. The Court has said in In re Quirin and in the Hamdi case that at a time of war the executive branch can detain an American citizen who decides to collaborate with the Nazis, as well as al-Qaida, as an enemy combatant. They can hold them for interrogation purposes to collect intelligence. We don't have to take anybody into court and put them on trial because the goal is to protect the Nation from another attack. The law also says no one, including an American citizen, can be held indefinitely without going to an article III court.…”