Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, we heard our colleague across the aisle talking about the Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Obviously, this is supposed to be about a block of amendments, and I don't have objection to those, so I would like to use this time to address that issue. This body, leaders in this body, the White House, from the President to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the Secretary of Defense, have promised our men and women who wear the uniform that their opinion will be considered. {time} 1800 A survey and study are being done. Now, we've heard about individual cases where this person ended up getting out. As we heard, he couldn't keep his sexual urges private, and so he had to make them overt and therefore he was out-processed. The policy has been, as long as the sexuality is a private matter, then it doesn't damage the mission of the military. But when it becomes overt, whether it's an officer having a heterosexual affair, or whether it's overt homosexuality, through the history of the military, it has been a problem to the ongoing morale of the military and accomplishment of the mission. Anything that detracts from the mission should be eliminated. So the message here is, the hundreds of people that have urged me, please fight for us and what we believe in, because I've heard from so many, if you push this through, we're out. We're done.…”