Here is some of it Dogs. If you want to post the transcript go right ahead. This is Boxer addressing Rice just before Rice starts to whine.
"Now, perhaps the most well-known statement you've made was the one
about Saddam Hussein launching a nuclear weapon on America with the
image of, quote, quoting you, "a mushroom cloud." That image had to
frighten every American into believing that Saddam Hussein was on the
verge of annihilating them if he was not stopped. And I will be
placing into the record a number of such statements you made which
have not been consistent with the facts.
As the nominee for secretary of State, you must answer to the American
people, and you are doing that now through this confirmation process.
And I continue to stand in awe of our founders, who understood that
ultimately those of us in the highest positions of our government must
be held accountable to the people we serve.
So I want to show you some statements that you made regarding the
nuclear threat and the ability of Saddam to attack us. Now, September
5th -- let me get to the right package here. On July 30th, 2003, you
were asked by PBS NewsHour's Gwen Ifill if you continued to stand by
the claims you made about Saddam's nuclear program in the days and
months leading up to the war.
In what appears to be an effort to downplay the nuclear-weapons scare
tactics you used before the war, your answer was, and I quote, "It was
a case that said he was trying to reconstitute. He's trying to acquire
nuclear weapons. Nobody ever said that it was going to be the next
year." So that's what you said to the American people on television --
"Nobody ever said it was going to be the next year."
Well, that wasn't true, because nine months before you said this to
the American people, what had George Bush said, President Bush, at his
speech at the Cincinnati Museum Center? "If the Iraqi regime is able
to produce, buy or steal an amount of highly-enriched uranium a little
larger than a single softball, it could have a nuclear weapon in less
than a year."
So the president tells the people there could be a weapon. Nine months
later you said no one ever said he could have a weapon in a year, when
in fact the president said it.
And here's the real kicker. On October 10th, '04, on Fox News Sunday
with Chris Wallace, three months ago, you were asked about CIA
Director Tenet's remark that prior to the war he had, quote, "made it
clear to the White House that he thought the nuclear-weapons program
was much weaker than the program to develop other WMDs. Your response
was this: "The intelligence assessment was that he was reconstituting
his nuclear program; that, left unchecked, he would have a nuclear
weapon by the end of the year."
So here you are, first contradicting the president and then
contradicting yourself. So it's hard to even ask you a question about
this, because you are on the record basically taking two sides of an
issue. And this does not serve the American people.
If it served your purpose to downplay the threat of nuclear weapons,
you said, "No one said he's going to have it in a year." But then
later, when you thought that perhaps you were on more solid ground
with the American people because at the time the war was probably
popular, or more popular, you'd say, "We thought he was going to have
a weapon within a year."
And this is -- the question is, this is a pattern here of what I see
from you on this issue, on the issue of the aluminum tubes, on the
issue of whether al Qaeda was actually involved in Iraq, which you've
said many times. And in my rounds -- I don't have any questions on
this round, because I'm just laying this out; I do have questions on
further rounds about similar contradictions. It's very troubling.
You know, if you were rolling out a new product like a can opener, who
would care about what we said? But this product is a war, and people
are dead and dying, and people are now saying they're not going to go
back because of what they experienced there. And it's very serious.
And as much as I want to look ahead -- and we will work together on a
myriad of issues -- it's hard for me to let go of this war, because
people are still dying. And you have not laid out an exit strategy.
You've not set up a timetable.
And you don't seem to be willing to, A, admit a mistake, or give any
indication of what you're going to do to forcefully involve others. As
a matter of fact, you've said more misstatements; that the territory
of the terrorists has been shrinking when your own administration says
it's now expanded to 60 countries. So I am deeply troubled."