[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 100 (Thursday, July 21, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H6310]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                RHETORIC IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks and include 
extraneous material.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, it is hot outside, and we must cool off 
the rhetoric in this House.
  We have had another bombing in London, and yet Members of this House 
are talking about bombing Muslim holy places. Members are quoted in the 
press as talking about shooting people in the press who are 
investigating the Karl Rove incident.
  This issue is now on the front page of the Washington Post, just like 
Watergate was, and there is no place for that kind of inflammatory 
rhetoric in this House or by the membership of this House.
  The Speaker should make it clear that Members have a major impact on 
the public when they talk in that kind of language. We do not want to 
be seen to encourage it or in any way say it is all right. Those kinds 
of things from a Member of Congress are clearly out of place.
  I include for printing in the Record a story from the Editor & 
Publisher of a Member of Congress and what has been said in the press 
today. This must not continue.

 Rep. King Says Russert and Others in Media Should `Be Shot,' Not Karl 
                                  Rove

                             (By E&P Staff)

       New York.--From the transcript of an interview on Tuesday 
     night on MSNBC's ``Scarborough Country,'' between host Joe 
     Scarborough and Congressman Peter King, a Republican from New 
     York, on the Plame case and the possible leak of the CIA 
     agents name by White House aide Karl Rove.
       * * *
       Scarborough: The last thing you want to do at a time of war 
     is reveal the identity of undercover CIA agents.
       King: No. Joe Wilson, she recommended--his wife recommended 
     him for this. He said the vice president recommended him. To 
     me, she took it off the table. Once she allowed him to go 
     ahead and say that, write his op-ed in ``The New York 
     Times,'' to have Tim Russert give him a full hour on ``Meet 
     the Press,'' saying that he was sent there as a 
     representative of the vice president, when she knew, she knew 
     herself that she was the one that recommended him for it, she 
     allowed that lie to go forward involving the vice president 
     of the United States, the president of the United States, 
     then to me she should be the last one in the world who has 
     any right to complain.
       And Joe Wilson has no right to complain. And I think people 
     like Tim Russert and the others, who gave this guy such a 
     free ride and all the media, they're the ones to be shot, not 
     Karl Rove.
       Listen, maybe Karl Rove was not perfect. We live in an 
     imperfect world. And I give him credit for having the guts.
       And I really--tell you, Republicans are running for cover. 
     They should be out attacking Joe Wilson. We should throw this 
     back at them with all the nonsense that has been said about 
     George Bush and all the lies that have come out.
       Scarborough: Well * * *
       King: Let's at least stand by the guy. He was trying to set 
     the record straight for historical purposes and to save 
     American lives. And if Joe Wilson's wife was that upset, she 
     should have come out and said that her husband was a liar, 
     when he was.

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