Political Quotes

“I will take a few minutes under my time and give to this Chamber two quotations that frame the entire debate. The first quotation is from 40 years ago. It was the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, in 1962: This Nation is prepared to present its case against the Soviet threat to peace and our own proposals for a peaceful world at any time and in any form, in the Organization of American States, in the United Nations, or in any other meeting that could be useful, without limiting our freedom of action. This is precisely what this amendment does. It is a total substitute for the work that has been done by the Senator from Connecticut, working with others, the leadership on both sides of the aisle, and the President's staff. That would all come down, and in its place would be this resolution which has provisions that could be interpreted as a veto, questions the authority of the President, and puts too much reliance that the United Nations is going to devise a resolution which would meet the criteria that our President and other nations deem essential for a new inspection regime. That was a quote by President Kennedy. Now, 40 years forward, a second quote: This resolution gives the President the authority he needs to confront the threat posed by Iraq. It is fundamentally different and a better resolution than the one the President sent to us. It is neither a Democratic resolution nor a Republican resolution. It is now a statement of American resolve and values.…”