The commission ought to be comprised of persons whose duty is to truth and to our Nation's founding principles.

We need to do so again in these difficult economic times.

I do believe, however, that a commission of whatever variety to investigate the Bush administration activities and its officials is a profoundly bad idea, a dangerous idea, both for policy but, even more importantly to me as a lawyer, for…

I am just not willing to join in the acknowledgment of failure of Congress performing its vigorous oversight responsibilities, which I think creation of such a commission would amount to.

Your proposal is aimed at finding the truth, not settling scores.

There can be no doubt that we must fully understand the mistakes of the past in order to learn from them.

If you violate the Constitution in wiretaps and specific statutes, if you violate the law in not using the FISA Court...

I disagree with those conclusions, but I certainly do not believe a truth commission is necessary to somehow arbitrate the differences between me and the Levin report.

In my view, any effort to outsource any aspects of this power to entities operating outside of the structure of Government established by our Constitution is extremely troubling and must be strongly resisted by all who are concerned with…

We cannot turn the page unless we first read the page.

I think that we are less safe as a result of the mistakes of the last administration's national security policies.

He just wanted somebody to get him off the list, and they could not.

It is not enough to say that America is discontinuing the policies and practices of the recent past.

It is far better for American foreign policy if we acknowledge willingly what went right and what went wrong.

The very decision to initiate what amounts to a criminal investigation, whether or not it is formally designated as such, is too weighty to be outsourced to commissions operating outside of the constitutionally prescribed tripartite…

I believe that that might best be accomplished though a nonpartisan commission of inquiry.

If the United States is seen as doing an open and honest review of what happened, setting up policies if we find that we did not follow our own laws and our own policies, to make it very clear mistakes would not be made in the future, does…

I am pleased and gratified that President Obama and his advisers recognized the need to take these actions and actually took them quickly.

The proposed commission, I submit to you, cannot.

While a commission of inquiry is the best way to get the facts out, Congress, the Justice Department, and the public should decide what to do with those facts.

I believe that a commission on the handling of detainees is vital to our country's future--to its security, to its standing in the world, and to our collective commitment as a people to honor, respect, and remain committed to our founding…

I think there should be U.S. Attorneys asking those questions and possibly filing indictments.

The longest serving member of this Committee, Senator Edward Kennedy, half a dozen or a dozen times was told he could not board a flight.

If criminal conduct occurred, this Senator wants to know about it.

A commission of the kind we are proposing is needed in order to arrive at an in-depth, unbiased, and impartial understanding of what happened, how it happened, and the consequences of those actions.