Political Quotes

“I have listened carefully to our colleague. His amendment is very simple on its face. But behind the simplicity lies a great deal of history. This Nation of ours has been protected by the two oceans, and by wonderful neighbors to the north and to the south. We have had a sense of security. But with the advent of high technology, and with the advent of worldwide syndicates of terrorists, America will never be the same again. That is a tough thing for me to tell my children and my grandchildren because I have labored in my life--as everyone in this Chamber has--to provide not only for my family, friends and neighbors such that they can enjoy the life we have enjoyed these many years. However, high technology, while it benefits mankind in so many ways, has brought about dramatic change. If you wish to have the standard of imminent threat placed in the bill that Senator Lieberman, Senator McCain, Senator Bayh and I have crafted, I say to you most respectfully, with the advent of this extraordinary evolution of technology, the time involved in warning that is implicit in imminent threat left us with the end of the 20th century. The 21st century high technology has erased that. Imminent danger struck us on September 11th. We didn't know it was coming. The doctrine of imminent danger, as I say, has changed in this 21st century. It no longer gives us the warning that we must have.”