Senator John Warner, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Commitee, pointedly did not support the President last night. He did it in the most perfectly Senatorial way, by indirection:
Larry, I found the speech to be credible and sincere. And it does lay down a plan that reflects a lot of study by the executive branch, a lot of advice and opinion that the president took into consideration.
I was privileged to meet with him personally twice this week on this issue. And I think it’s now the responsibility of the Congress, particularly the Senate, to give equal study and objectivity to this speech and come up with our own opinions.
Translation: No way I’m going to support this. It’ll be interesting to see if Warner makes his implicit opposition explicit.
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