Alan Schlesinger in Connecticut 2006 Senate general campaign Debate

On Principles & Values: Partisanship is not the problem in Iraq, as Lieberman claims

LIEBERMAN: One of the major problems in Washington is too much partisanship. The best way to fix Washington is to elect people who will stand up & do what's right regardless of the political consequences. Someone who will work across party lines to get things done for the people they serve. That's what I've done for 18 years. Negativity and partisan game-playing couldn't have accomplished anything.

LAMONT: I don't think it's bipartisan to rubber-stamp George Bush's rush to war in Iraq. That's a time we needed checks and balances, and tough questions asked. Every time someone says it's time for a change, Sen. Lieberman suggests they're too partisan, or too negative. We got ourselves into this mess not because we asked too many questions, but because we asked too few.

SCHLESINGER: The Senator likes to bring up partisanship all the time. Partisanship is not the problem in Iraq. Being a crutch to the Maliki government may be the problem.

On War & Peace: Iraq needs a three-state alternative on the table

LIEBERMAN: I'm not prepared to give up on Iraq and I'm not prepared to fail. Ned Lamont has embraced a proposal for withdrawal by July 2007. To me, that's not a plan for success, that's retreat and a recipe for disaster, and it will deeply hurt the American people.

LAMONT: Joe Lieberman & George Bush's stay-the-course strategy - that's the recipe for failure.

SCHLESINGER: What we have in Iraq is not a military problem, but political problem. The Pentagon has adopted my position-to put a tri-state alternative on the table. With self-government for the Sunnis, the Shias, and the Kurds, with a national council to distribute the oil wealth. I believe you'd then see sectarian violence go down to a minimum; the insurgency from Iran and other countries could be controlled; and our troops could exit in a staged withdrawal naturally, because there'd be peace there.

On Energy & Oil: Energy Bill had 3-mile LNG platform in Long Island Sound

LAMONT: Dick Cheney invited 100 of his favorite energy CEOs and lobbyists behind closed doors, and they passed the Energy Bill. It provided billions of dollars in subsidies to Exxon-Mobil. Sen. Lieberman was one of the only New England Senators to sign onto that bill. It was a bad bill.

SCHLESINGER: I can't believe this, Ned, I finally agree with you on something. But I would have voted against that bill for entirely different reasons, because it would have developed a 3-mile platform in the middle of Long Island Sound as a fuel depot for natural gas. We can't have it, and that vetoed the bill for me.

LIEBERMAN: The Energy Bill last year was criticized for one part. But it has the most substantial incentives for energy conservation and alternative energy that Congress has ever adopted.

LAMONT: For Sen. Lieberman to sign onto that bill, we lost that opportunity to put in efficiency standards, and to put together a comprehensive energy plan.

On Energy & Oil: Suspend the gas tax during the driving months

On Energy & Oil: 1980s Excess Profits Tax caused skyrocketing oil prices

LIEBERMAN: This is an outrage. People are being cheated. Last December, in the midst of the heating oil season, I submitted legislation that would impose a 50% Excess Profits Tax on oil companies for really undeserved profits and return that money to low- and middle-income consumers to help them pay bills.

SCHLESINGER: With all due respect, Joe, been there, done that. The last time we did, interest rates was to 14%, you couldn't get a mortgage, oil prices skyrocketed, and it just didn't work. Pres. Reagan repealed that Excess Profits Tax, and immediately oil prices fell to a 20-year low, and stayed therefore about 20 years. So that's not the solution.

LAMONT: Front and center to deal with energy prices is that we've got to deal with our dependence on oil, with incentives and conservation to allow that to happen.

On Energy & Oil: Declaration of Energy Independence: 2-tiered oil profit tax

LIEBERMAN: In the long run we've got to break our dependence on foreign oil from countries that are unstable or hostile to us. I'm now co-sponsoring a bill called Set America Free, which will reduce our consumption of oil by 10 million barrels a day. It would develop an American biofuels refinery and distribution network.

SCHLESINGER: We have to accept the fact that we're moving from fossil fuel to eventually solar, we're in a probably 30 or 40 year transition process. We have to put incentives into alternative fuel sources. I call it my Declaration of Energy Independence. And we have a two-tiered process for oil company profits: One for fossil fuels, which is a higher tax, and one for alternatives. That way you direct the funds where they're needed and you get results.

LIEBERMAN: There's been no greater failure of leadership in our government over the last 30 years than our failure to do something about our dependence on foreign oil

On Homeland Security: Iran has 6 enriched nuclear warheads; no negotiating

LAMONT: In each case, first and foremost, it's time for hard-headed direct negotiations--negotiations backed up by sanctions, and negotiations are always backed up by the threat of force. Negotiation is not a form of appeasement.

SCHLESINGER: North Korea can be dealt with Either bilaterally or in 6-way talks. When it comes to Iran, our policy must be consistent. We must speak with a strong and unified voice. Ahmadinejad has 18 nuclear facilities, 6 enriched nuclear warheads, and a silo deep underground to test them, and believe me, that's not for energy purposes. If you think you can negotiate with Ahmadinejad, no, our security is on the line.

LIEBERMAN: We need to first use economic and diplomatic sanctions. But they must know that in the final analysis, the US and our allies are prepared to stop Iran from becoming nuclear, and to stop North Korea from selling any of its nuclear weapons to terrorists.