' Sen. Levin then read a quote from Amb. Butler, intending to suggest that Butler did not agree with Ritter about the lack of US support for UNSCOM. Ritter advised the quote should be read "between the lines."
Sen Biden asked, "Do you think you should be the one to pull the strings" on when the US uses military force? Ritter replied that he had a job to do and that UNSCOM coordinated with the US.
Biden suggested that the question of taking the nation to war was a responsibility "slightly beyond your pay grade. That's why they [who make such decisions] get paid big bucks. That's why they get their limos and you don't." Biden advised that Albright had more to consider than "whether old Scotty-boy didn't get in" to a suspected weapons site. He said that the question of the use of force was the kind of decision that people like Colin Powell and George Bush made, saying that it was a very complicated decision, repeating, "It's above your pay grade."'