Jay Rockefeller Quotations

There are those of us on the Senate side who really do suspect, not politically but genuinely, that this is an effort -- the beginning of an effort and very obviously a huge beginning -- to gradually phase out Medicare as a public expense,

when the most senior officials in the Bush administration had already forcefully and repeatedly stated their conclusions publicly.

Let's find out if there is ... I don't know.

One of my problems, so to speak, is that, in America, we tend to thing in relatively short-term. In the Middle East and Asia and other parts of the world, they think in terms of centuries or 500 years or 1,000 years.

I would call upon my colleagues at the proper time to support this aviation legislation, not to say that it is perfect, not to say that some of this legislation that has risen out of this crisis is perfect, and we will have a chance to revisit and this is only the first of a wave of accountability,

If we had prescribed in Congress each of the relationships between the agencies, I think that would have been an enormous mistake and would have rendered this person more useless. This person can exercise power, and I think that's good.

If the Senate oversight committees are either unwilling or unable to tackle the tough but necessary questions associated with detention, interrogation or rendition of prisoners, then we should step aside -- regrettably, if we have to -- and let the work be done by others unfettered by other considerations,

I am deeply concerned that the FAA is losing a number of its most senior safety inspectors and does not have the ability to replace them,

I am saddened to learn of Bob's passing. Bob was an outstanding journalist and an acute political observer.

From our side of the table, there was absolute unanimity on federalization, and we're going to write the law,

It is more than apparent to me that the White House has applied heavy pressure in recent days, in recent weeks, to prevent the committee from doing its job.

I won't believe it until I see it. I don't think it's in their interest to give us those documents, because I think it's going to show some things that are very troublesome to the American people.

The American people deserve to know not just whether this administration committed crimes, but whether this administration told the truth - the full truth, the straight story,

While we transferred sovereignty today, we need to be honest with the American people that this struggle is far from over, ... Security in Iraq is worse now than it was right after the fall of Baghdad and may deteriorate further. The Iraqi security forces cannot handle the challenge alone, reconstruction has barely started, and massive unemployment has left many frustrated and even desperate.

We have a moral obligation to tackle television violence and provide parents with the tools to make their children safer,

We don't know how to protect against any biological (weapon). ... You play it safe, and the plane doesn't fly, and people are going to have to get used to that, and people are not going to like that, but it's what you've got to do in this era,

We have been pushing for a resolution on this issue since November. We are less than a month away from having some drug companies terminate these vital programs Nothing short of an immediate and complete clarification of these rules is acceptable.

When (beneficiaries) call the 1-800 number, they can wait for a week, a month. They can wait until the Iraq war is over. Nobody answers the phone.

We were told by the president that we had no alternative but to go into Iraq because of the threat that Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction posed, but to date, these weapons have not been found.

The president's economic plan doesn't do enough to create new jobs and that has to be a national priority. While there are some signs the economy is improving, it is not translating into jobs.

Two months have now passed since the bill signing ceremony and the position of director of national intelligence remains vacant, not even a person nominated. To me, this is unacceptable.

Until I receive additional information about the thoroughness of the investigation, I cannot make a judgment on the accuracy of the conclusions,

Director Goss's announcement leaves me with one troubling question: what failures in performance, if not these, warrant the convening of an accountability board at the CIA?

There should be another chair before us, with an accompanying name card that reads director of national intelligence,

I've been in touch with his family, and I've already written (Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld) to request that they immediately refund his money and review this horrendous policy. I'm shocked that he has been treated this way by our military.

They are a dangerous country, ... They're much more sophisticated than Iraq.

I've always though the Beckley V-A-M-C had the authority to assist with transportation, but we need to have that question answered right away. Then, we'll work with the Beckley V-A to restore their transportation through whatever means possible.

Despite the efforts to focus on Saddam's desires and intentions, the bottom line is Iraq did not have either weapon stockpiles or active production capabilities at the time of the war,

Any line of questioning that has brought us too close to the White House has been thwarted, ... We have been undermined, avoided, put off and vilified by the other side.

As both a legal and practical matter, ... he doesn't know what's in them and has never given any direction to sell or acquire assets.

This is not a story with a quick ending.

This committee is basically under control of the White House. It's an unprecedented bout of political pressure from the White House.

a man of character, conviction and kindness ... was a classic American intellectual -- a man with a brilliant and probing mind, yet entirely approachable and pragmatic.

The report does further document Saddam's attempts to deceive the world and get out from under the sanctions, but the fact remains, the sanctions combined with inspections were working and Saddam was restrained.

This is the guy who's been behind everything,

There's always the question whether or not he was running a secret intelligence operation that bypassed the entire intelligence community. And the law says you've got to inform the intelligence community of anything that you're doing,

Allowing the U.N. into Iraq will demonstrate to the Iraqis that the international community as a whole is committed to bringing stability and safety to their country.

It's always premature. It was premature that the Titanic went down. But it did indeed disappear.

It may be that they're tired of talking about the Brooklyn Bridge (terror plot), and they're trying to find a different edifice of some sort.

Everyone knows that coal mining is very dangerous, but you go into it every day thinking it's going to be all right.

Once again, it appears to me that the White House has dictated that the Republican-controlled Congress not conduct oversight of an important national security matter, ... They have made it clear that anyone who suggests that oversight is needed should be labeled as unpatriotic.

It's not a happy outcome and it has to be fixed.

I mean, al Qaeda, after all, has been pretty well splintered in its, the head of the monster is off, but the body is surviving in many other forms.

If planes don't fly, the whole economy shuts down,

I particularly single out baseball. And in baseball, I particularly single out the players because they have negotiated reluctantly, if at all.

In other words, he's an entirely unreliable individual upon whom the White House was placing substantial intelligence trust,

I just question whether what you did in Utah sort of says, 'Well, we can do this in all of America,' ... I would suggest to you that in Appalachia and other areas they can't, and I would urgently hope that you would think about this matter now that you have the entire country's population very much at your mercy or at your help.

I really expected that when this hearing came, the new director of national intelligence would be here to talk about threats,

I think not taking Iran seriously is an enormous mistake. I've always felt that it was much more of a problem than Iraq was.

I don't think this is the proper time, ... Fox News Sunday.

Grassley is a very good chairman, very fair, and he tries his very best to be bipartisan, ... But the Senate Finance Committee is made up of a lot of 'true believers' that people should exercise personal responsibility, that the governors will do the right thing... For them, it's about balancing the budget. For me, it's about taking care of a huge chunk of West Virginia... I was a governor, and this makes me very nervous.

Iran is nothing but trouble, and always has been that.

Allowing the U.N. into Iraq will demonstrate to the Iraqis that the international community as a whole is committed to bringing stability and safety to their country.

I don't think so, and that's partly the problem of not checking cargo, and it's partly the problem of biological weapons, which nobody has figured out really what to do about yet

For the past three years, the Senate intelligence committee has avoided carrying out its oversight of our nation's intelligence programs whenever the White House becomes uncomfortable with the questions being asked. The very independence of this committee is called into question.

One year after the United States led the invasion of Iraq, the country remains extremely dangerous not only to our troops, but also to the stability of the world.

One of my problems, so to speak, is that, in America, we tend to think in relatively short-term. In the Middle East and Asia and other parts of the world, they think in terms of centuries or 500 years or 1,000 years.

Pat Roberts and I both feel very strongly that when we get to Iran, that we can't make the same mistakes. We have to ask the questions, the hard questions before, not afterwards, and get the right intelligence.

It would be a big favor to political discourse; to our ability to do our work here in Congress; and to the American people, to be able to talk with each other and have some faith in their government and, more importantly, in their future,

We have to bring stability to Iraq, otherwise we will be faced with a future dilemma of sending our loved ones into harms way to stop a civil war or the rise of a new tyrant born from the instability that we created.

Everything is about accountability to the American people, accountability of the executive branch ... [and] accountability of the oversight of the Congress

We will push through health care reform regardless of the views of the American people.

There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years. And that may happen sooner if he can obtain access to enriched uranium from foreign sources -- something that is not that difficult in the current world. We also should remember we have always underestimated the progress Saddam has made in development of weapons of mass destruction.

And really there was no sense of urgency. That was vastly frustrating to a 30-year professional who had been doing counterterrorism for four different presidents. ... He wanted to get things done and was frustrated by the Bush administration.

And that is a classic example of a lack of accountability to the American people, ... Late Edition.

the chain of command that Duncan Hunter's worried about.

The Commission did a careful review of the role of the courts in serving children in foster care, and it issued a series of recommendations. We are grateful for this report and relied on many of their recommendations in crafting this legislation. As always, we hope to forge bipartisan consensus on ways to move this bill forward.