Lindsey Graham

I think it is a wise investment in these economic down times that we live in here at home.

I think we have the best system in the world and do not ever lose sight of that.

You said something to me that was pretty intriguing, that you have been able to manage the health care costs of the veteran population significantly without the inflationary costs associated with Medicare.

Would you feel that way about social security? Why should a social security recipient be entitled to paid representation and a veteran not?

I would really encourage you to do that because there are a lot of teaching hospitals, university hospitals, private organizations that serve veterans, that if you combined the two funding pools you would have a better service for the…

As a matter of fact, to me it is a very disturbing event that could really send the wrong signal to the wrong people at the wrong time.

I think we need to think in terms of long-term security interests and Iraq could become a very stable partner in the future.

Call it what you like, and, you know, I got a lot of pushback when I mentioned leaving that option on the table.

I want to do what is responsible. I want outcomes. I park my ideology here.

The public has just about had it with this continuous capitalization.

This idea that you are too big to fail, that does not set well with me.

I mean, obviously we are doing things that no one likes, whether you be a moderate, conservative Democrat, whatever you would like to call yourself, Senator Warner—you seem to be a good guy—or a conservative Republican from South Carolina.

I'm here today to point out the fact that this is not bipartisanship. This process that is -- we're engaging in is not smart, we're not working together.

No one is being arbitrarily held based on just suspicion or emotion but based on evidence and a legal process.

You cannot detain someone indefinitely under criminal law. They have to have a trial.

There is a physical high ground in traditional war, but in this war there is the moral high ground.

I think you would be very qualified for your job.

So America needs to get ready for this proposition that some people are going to be detained as enemy combatants, not criminals.

Under law of armed conflict, as I understand it, and under the Geneva Convention, Article 5 says that if there is a dispute about status, what you are entitled to is an independent, neutral decisionmaker.

OK. Let me read from Mr. Holder here. Would you consider him your boss?

It has to have substantial due process.

Do you believe we are at war?

Some of these people are going to be held maybe for the rest of their life, but it will be based on our values, not theirs.

The battlefield--there are physical battlefields, certainly, in Afghanistan, but there are battlefields, potentially, you know, in our Nation.

It should have an independent judiciary involved in making that decision beyond the executive branch.