DEBBIE ELLIOTT, host:
In the U.S., Democrats were quick to pounce on Prime Minister Malaki's amnesty plan on the Sunday morning talk shows.
Senator CARL LEVIN (Democrat, Michigan): For heaven's sake, we liberated that country. We got rid of a horrific dictator. We've paid a tremendous price. More than 2500 Americans have given up their lives. The idea that they should even consider talking about amnesty for people who have killed people who liberated their country is unconscionable.
Senator BARBARA BOXER (Democrat, California): This thing is a mess. It's a humiliation. It's a mess, and in my opinion we have lost control of an exit strategy.
Senator RUSS FEINGOLD (Democrat, Wisconsin): We as Americans cannot tolerate the idea that people who have murdered American soldiers should get off scot-free. I don't think any of us can support that.
ELLIOTT: The voices of Democrat Senators Carl Levin on Fox News Sunday, Barbara Boxer on CBS' Face the Nation, and Russ Feingold on NBC's Meet the Press. Democrats want the Senate to pass a symbolic statement decrying the amnesty and directing President Bush to convey the U.S. objections to the Iraqi government.
Republican John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee, suggested such legislation would be ill advised.
Senator JOHN WARNER (Republican, Virginia): I'm personally strongly against any amnesty, but I do not wish the Congress last week to speak specifically to it, nor I speak specifically this morning, other than to say personally that's my view. I want the Iraqi people to take this decision unto themselves and make it correctly.
ELLIOTT: Senator John Warner speaking on Fox News Sunday. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.