[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 106 (Thursday, July 17, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1493]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             AMERICAN'S CONCERN OVER THE STATE OF THE UNION

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 16, 2003

  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to add the following remarks 
and article to the extension of remarks in today's Congressional 
Record:
  Mr. Speaker, for some time I have felt this administration has been 
leading our country down an unwise and potentially dangerous path. 
David S. Broder's Washington Post editorial, from Tuesday, July 15, 
2003, underscores that a growing segment of our nation is likewise 
concerned with the direction which the Administration has taken this 
country.

               [From the Washington Post, July 15, 2003]

                        Black Thursday for Bush

                          (By David S. Broder)

       If President Bush is not reelected, we may look back on 
     last Thursday, July 10, 2003, as the day the shadow of defeat 
     first crossed his political horizon. To be sure, Bush looks 
     strong. The CBS News poll released that evening had his 
     approval rating at 60 percent, with solid support from his 
     own party, a 26-point lead among independents and a near-even 
     split among Democrats. Two-thirds of those surveyed could not 
     name a single one of the nine Democrats vying for the right 
     to oppose him.
       But ``The CBS Evening News'' that night was like Karl 
     Rove's worst nightmare, and the other network newscasts--
     still the main source of information for a large number of 
     Americans--were not much better.
       The headlines announced by John Roberts, substituting for 
     Dan Rather on CBS, were: ``President Bush's false claim about 
     Iraqi weapons; he made it despite a CIA warning the 
     intelligence was bad. More Americans say U.S. is losing 
     control of Iraq. Also tonight, food lines in America; they're 
     back and getting longer.''
       Brian Williams, filling in for Tom Brokaw on NBC, began: 
     ``War zone. Two more Americans dead in Iraq, and now the 
     general who led the war says the troops could be there four 
     more years.''
       Peter Jennings on ABC gave the administration a break, 
     opening the broadcast with this: ``The secretary of state 
     says there was no attempt to deceive the American people 
     about the case for war in Iraq.'' But then Jennings described 
     Colin Powell's news conference as ``damage control,'' an 
     effort to explain ``why the president used some false 
     information in his State of the Union address to justify 
     attacking Iraq.''
       All of them--and cable news--cited the dissonant voices 
     from within the administration blaming one another for Bush's 
     use of a report, which the CIA had long since discredited, 
     claiming that Iraq tried to buy uranium for a nuclear weapons 
     program from the African country of Niger.
       Even after CIA Director George Tenet tried to take 
     responsibility for the foul-up, the White House faces a 
     credibility gap that reaches down into the non-discovery of 
     the weapons of mass destruction Bush and his top associates 
     said Saddam Hussein was amassing to threaten the United 
     States.
       And the doubts don't stop there. Two and a half months 
     after Bush proclaimed victory in Iraq--``mission 
     accomplished''--CBS reported that only 45 percent of the 
     public now believes the United States is in control of events 
     there. On the question of credibility regarding weapons of 
     mass destruction, 56 percent say Bush administration 
     officials were hiding important elements of what they knew or 
     were outright lying.
       The next day a Washington Post-ABC News poll reported that 
     while Bush's approval score was still at a healthy 59 
     percent, there had been a 9-point drop in less than three 
     weeks both in his overall rating and on the question of 
     confidence in his handling of Iraq. Ominously, the poll found 
     a dramatic reversal in public tolerance of continuing 
     casualties, with a majority saying for the first time that 
     the losses are unacceptable when weighed against the goals of 
     the war.
       Eight out of 10 in the Post-ABC poll said they were very or 
     somewhat concerned that the United States ``will get bogged 
     down in a long and costly peacekeeping mission.'' And this 
     was before the networks showed Gen. Tommy Franks telling 
     Congress the troops would be in Iraq for years.
       If Iraq looks increasingly worrisome on TV and in the 
     polls, the economy is even worse. CBS found jobs and the 
     economy dwarfing every other issue, cited by almost four 
     times as many people as cited Iraq or the war on terrorism. 
     On that black Thursday for the administration, first-time 
     unemployment claims pushed the number of Americans on jobless 
     relief to the highest level in 20 years.
       And the most troubling pictures on any of the three 
     broadcasts were those of a line of cars, stretching out of 
     sight down a flat two-lane road in Logan, Ohio--jobless and 
     struggling families waiting for the twice-a-month 
     distribution of free food by the local office of America's 
     Second Harvest. The head of the agency said, ``We are seeing 
     a new phenomenon: Last year's food bank donors are now this 
     year's food bank clients.'' Said CBS reporter Cynthia Bowers, 
     ``You could call it a line of the times, because in a growing 
     number of American communities these days, making ends meet 
     means waiting for a handout.''
       Some may say, ``Well, it's one day's news,'' or dismiss it 
     all as media bias. But that does not dissolve the shadow that 
     now hangs over Bush's bright hopes for a second term.




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