Leadership Quote by George Voinovich

Candor is doing double duty here: it reads like a procedural request, but it lands as a warning shot. Voinovich isn’t merely asking for better briefings; he’s marking a boundary between the Senate’s constitutional role and an executive branch that, in moments of crisis, tends to treat Congress as a nuisance or a leak risk. By saying “make it clear publicly,” he turns what could have been a private grievance into a reputational test. If the Administration withholds, it won’t just be a policy dispute; it will be framed as a failure of basic democratic hygiene.

The careful target - “particularly with members on the Foreign Relations Committee” - is Washington code for: stop managing us, stop selectively sharing, stop using classification and talking points as substitutes for trust. He’s invoking the committee not as a club, but as an institution that confers legitimacy. Foreign policy, unlike many domestic fights, relies on continuity; allies listen for steadiness, adversaries probe for fractures. Voinovich is arguing that secrecy and spin don’t just insult Congress, they weaken America’s hand abroad by broadcasting internal dysfunction.

The phrase “so that we can maintain a bipartisan foreign policy” is the velvet glove. It implies bipartisanship is conditional, earned through transparency. Subtext: if you want votes for war authorizations, sanctions, treaties, or sustained funding, you don’t get to brief lawmakers after the fact. Candor becomes the price of unity, and unity becomes the currency of power.