When judging the hyperbole emerging from Capitol Hill about the Islamic State, you must keep this in mind: “The threat ISIS poses cannot be overstated.”

That’s what Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, wrote in a USA Today op-ed on Sunday.

In other words, there can be no hyperbole.

In what is therefore, by definition, understatement, Feinstein called the Islamic State “the most vicious, well-funded and militant terrorist organization we have ever seen.”

She expressed sympathy for those who don’t fully appreciate its horror — yet. “I recognize the reluctance of many Americans to engage in another war in the Middle East. But it is imperative that every American is fully cognizant of how dangerous and deadly ISIS really is,” she wrote. “Americans need to understand ISIS’ degree of viciousness as well as what will happen in the absence of U.S. leadership and action… [W]e could suffer the consequences for decades to come.”

New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez told Fox News on Sunday: “ISIS is a savage terrorist organization that has to be defeated before they can create the operational wherewithal to conduct a September 11th-like tragedy.”

This despite the fact that national security officials have seen no sign of domestic threats posed by the Islamic State.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) got all metaphorical on Fox News earlier today: “ISIS is, in kind of a scary way, it’s like something Ian Fleming created. It’s like Dr. No,” he said. “It’s the evil empire that is not a nation, just an evil group of people, or an evil individual at the head, that’s a threat to the free world. It’s like privatized terrorism; a public-private partnership.”