[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 90 (Wednesday, June 18, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H5472]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           COVERUP ON IRAQ DAMAGING LEGITIMACY OF GOVERNMENT

  (Mr. KUCINICH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, protection of the truth and the 
constitutional role of Congress as a coequal branch should not be a 
partisan matter. Yet yesterday Republicans on the House Committee on 
International Relations participated in the cover-up of the Bush 
administration's false claims which sent America to war against Iraq.
  The resolution of inquiry, backed by 40 Members of the House, sought 
to protect Congress' role in asking the administration where is the 
proof that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction; where was proof of an 
imminent threat.
  Unfortunately, as panic sets in over the realization that this 
administration misled the American people in the cause of war, 
Republicans are refusing to hold public hearings, refusing serious 
oversight, open oversight. Republicans just will not make Republicans 
accountable. That is the problem with one-party rule.
  Our democracy is in danger if we do not make this administration 
accountable. They sent this country into war based on lies and in doing 
so have damaged the legitimacy of their own government. Where are the 
weapons of mass destruction? Where was the imminent threat? Why did 
America go to war?

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