Political Quotes

“I commend my longtime friend from Arizona. He in a very succinct way looked at this debate in the context of what is going on today and tomorrow and the weeks and months to come in Iraq, but he is also looking at it in the context of the future, how generations that follow us will look back on this chapter and moment in history and how the Congress of the United States, hopefully, has given support to the Commander in Chief under the Constitution--our President--to direct the operations of the current conflicts. The Senator also touched on how we have conducted this debate. I wish to just repeat a few remarks of my opening remarks yesterday with respect to my colleague from Michigan in addressing his amendment. I said that I have studied it carefully. I did not denounce the amendment; I said it was a serious amendment, and it is a serious amendment. It deserves serious thought, and I, and I think others, have given that serious thought to our colleague on his amendment. But I strongly oppose it. Unlike last year where I sat down and was able to work out with him a conciliatory, bipartisan amendment which got three-quarters of the votes of the Senate, it just, in the form he presented it, was not an option this time. Therefore, regrettably, we approach these critically important votes with far greater partisanship than I had hoped. I had hoped we would have greater bipartisanship.…”