Political Quotes

“I would ask a further question of the Senator from Kentucky. I believe the question he has asked--whether the President has the power to authorize lethal force, such as a drone strike against a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil and without trial--is a very clearly stated question and one, I believe, the Senator and the rest of the Members of Congress are entitled to a very clear answer on. I was in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with the Attorney General this morning where we attempted to ask him on a number of occasions what his answer would be to this question. Yet he equivocated and he was ambiguous. He seemed to be ambiguous when a clear answer would serve him just as well, a point the Senator from Kentucky has made. The question I have for the Senator is: Wouldn't in all likelihood the legal rationale or justification issued by the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice include a discussion which would illuminate and elucidate the answer to the Senator's question? In other words, I would assume, without having seen that classified memo, that it would go through a rather lengthy analysis of the hypothetical situations under which these drone strikes might be used and would, in all likelihood, I think, shed some light on and clarify the answer to the Senator's question. Wouldn't that be a reasonable way to answer what is a very straightforward and reasonable question?”