John Cornyn: “I was one of those last week who spoke to this amendment by the Senator from Florida. I know now the Senator from…”

“I was one of those last week who spoke to this amendment by the Senator from Florida. I know now the Senator from Kentucky, the distinguished majority whip, has introduced another amendment and has suggested perhaps it would be appropriate to vote for both of them, since what in effect was a misstatement by a low-level Government employee in Iraq has now been clarified, making it crystal clear that it is not the policy of the new Government in Iraq to grant amnesty to those who have killed Americans. But I have to scratch my head a little bit and wonder why it is we are having this debate. We are on the Defense authorization bill, an enormously important bill that is being shepherded on the Senate floor by the distinguished chairman, for the last time as chairman--at least this will be the last time he will serve as chairman because of term limits on that committee. But we are essentially having a debate over a nonissue, and we are being asked now to send a message to the new Iraqi Government that you are going to be admonished, in effect, because of some of the missteps of a low-level Government employee. I am really confused about the message our friends on the other side of the aisle are trying to send our allies in Iraq. On the one hand, we have amendments that are offered suggesting that we leave them in 6 months' time and bring all of our troops home, and whatever happens as a result of that, well, it is not our problem anymore; it is their problem.…”