[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 12077]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  CONDUCTING U.S. GOVERNMENT BUSINESS

  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, let me commend my colleague from Tennessee. I 
thought his remarks were right on the spot. When we start looking 
backward instead of forward, we want to be careful what we ask for 
because we just might get it, and it might be more than we bargained 
for.
  There have been a lot of mistakes the United States has made, a lot 
we are not very proud of, and my colleague mentioned a couple of those. 
There were certainly things in the last Democratic administration for 
which, had some of the officials there had it to do over again, I am 
sure they would do over. There were things the Republican 
administration that succeeded the Clinton administration undoubtedly 
disagreed with, but it seems to me that President Bush has acquitted 
himself very well as a former President, not criticizing the 
administration he succeeded, and certainly not suggesting those 
disagreements should take the form of political trials or even criminal 
trials. It would be very unseemly for that to occur with respect to the 
Bush administration now that we have a new Obama administration.
  But people who served previously in the Clinton administration, 
obviously those who served in the Congress and knew something about 
what went on, would certainly have to be prepared to defend themselves 
under these circumstances as well. It is just an unseemly way, it seems 
to me--and I agree with my colleague from Tennessee--for the U.S. 
Government to be conducting its business. So I commend my colleague, 
Senator Alexander, for his statement.

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