[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 114 (Tuesday, July 30, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H8822]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. McInnis). The Chair would just remind 
the gentleman at the microphone that Members are to address their 
remarks to the Chair and not to the viewing audience, if the gentleman 
from California could observe that.
  Also, as a reminder, the gentleman from Minnesota has 2 minutes 
remaining.
  Mr. DORNAN. I thank the gentleman. I certainly yield back to the 
distinguished gentleman from Minnesota.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. I thank the gentleman. I just want to close this, and 
I know that he is going to have an hour to talk about some other issues 
that are important to us and the American people.
  But I wanted to talk a little bit tonight about the partial-birth 
abortion issue, because I think it is one point where the American 
people can begin to turn the clock back, that they can begin to recover 
the lost moral ground that we have already seen.
  We have heard some of the quotes from Billy Graham, we have heard 
some of the quotes from our Founding Fathers. We have talked a little 
bit about Robert Maplethorpe and what he did in Great Britain in terms 
of recovering the fumble of slavery and beginning to return Great 
Britain to a much more morally oriented society. As a result, the 
British are a much more moral and better society because of that.
  I think the news that Bill Bennett may well be the vice presidential 
nominee of the Republican party is very good news, because I have known 
Bill Bennett for a number of years. He is one person who has probably 
the strongest sense of truth and morality and character of any human 
being that I have met. He is an intellectual. He is a Ph.D., I believe 
from Harvard, and perhaps Congressman Dornan can correct me, but he is 
an intellectual as well as being someone who is well grounded in basic 
American values.

  I would hope that the American people would not lose faith, would not 
lose hope in this American system that we have, that we can somehow 
recover this fumble. As I said earlier to Congressman Dornan, we are 
only a handful of votes away from overriding the veto of this grisly 
procedure we call partial-birth abortions. I think if the American 
people join forces, if they send one loud, clear, demanding signal to 
the American Congress, that somehow we can find the votes to override 
that veto and once and for all begin to send a message that there are 
points beyond which the American people simply will not retreat.

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