[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 114 (Thursday, September 14, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H6624-H6625]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE WEEK THAT WAS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, What a week this has been. It began on 
Sunday when the President dispatched his Secretary of State and Vice 
President to the Sunday talk-shows to re-create the Administration's 
fiction that Iraq and al-Qaeda were connected.
  Their appearances came shortly after the Republican controlled Senate 
Intelligence Committee told the American people in a bi-partisan report 
that there were no ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda. No Ties.
  But, the Secretary of State and Vice President wouldn't let the facts 
stand in the way. In appearance after appearance, they kept telling the 
American people to be afraid, to believe their fiction about Iraq.

[[Page H6625]]

  The truth affirmed--again--that there was no national security 
interest served by invading Iraq.
  The President diverted the nation from Afghanistan and the hunt for 
bin Laden.
  And, the President diluted our resources by continuing to commit 
manpower and money to the wrong place, at the wrong time, without a 
national security priority. Instead of leading America back to the 
front line of the war on terror, the President continues to push 
America deeper into a civil war in Iraq.
  The fifth anniversary of 9/11 could have been marked by the President 
leading the nation in quiet, personal reflection. Instead, the 
President used a prime time television address to try to shore up his 
own faltering support among the American people.
  The Administration's singular focus today is to sustain a fiction 
about Iraq and al-Qaeda. They are trapped inside their own rhetoric and 
keep talking as if that will produce a different outcome.
  On Sunday the Vice President gave us fear. On Monday, the President 
gave us fiction. On Tuesday, the Republican Majority Leader gave us 
inflammatory rhetoric worthy of a nation without Democracy as its form 
of government.
  Terrified at the prospect of losing power, Republicans will say 
anything to make people afraid.
  In a meeting with reporters, the majority leader wondered aloud 
whether Americans who disagree with the President might be giving aid 
and comfort to the enemy, might be guilty of treason.
  The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that we are a nation of laws, not men, 
even in a time of war, and that the President must follow the law like 
everyone else. Instead of affirmation, we got accusations last night 
from a Republican leader.
  The President, Vice President and Speaker of the House--all 
Republicans--were silent in response.
  We are going to need a lot of jail cells to house the millions of 
Americans, including the Supreme Court, who believe America is a nation 
of laws worth defending and upholding.
  The majority of the American people want their government to remain 
Of the People, By the People and For the People.
  Republicans have a different vision. They govern by accusation in 
order to obtain acquiescence.
  Since Sunday, Republicans have moved from fear, to fiction, from 
inflammatory rhetoric to closed debate.
  House Republican leaders are not interested in having America stand 
united.
  That's why they passed a resolution that has to do with clinging to 
power, not 9/11.
  The resolution will not make America safer, but it was passed in the 
hope of making Republicans safer.
  The Republican resolution was about November 7, not September 11 and 
Republicans sacrificed patriotism for political ambition.
  Trapped by their own rhetoric, and led by a President who has lost 
the trust of the American people, Republicans have retreated to their 
last stand--Making you afraid.
  Every time they rise, remember this: Republicans have propped up this 
President by spending more on the Iraq War than on domestic security. 
Many Republicans in this House know the truth. They just can't speak 
it, for fear of being outed by their own Party Leadership.
  Republicans will only say what the President wants you to hear. And 
it is not the truth. The American people are getting that somewhere 
else. Republicans gave us fear and fiction around the fifth anniversary 
of 9/11. Just imagine what they have in store for us in the weeks 
ahead.
  Fear has never made America safer. But that's all the Republicans 
have to offer. And that's simply not enough to protect and defend 
America in the 21st century.

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