[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 2 (Tuesday, January 12, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H15]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  REMEMBERING THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Grayson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GRAYSON. Mr. Speaker, I was surprised to hear a few days ago Rudy 
Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, say that there were no 
terrorist attacks during the Bush administration on U.S. soil. He later 
corrected that remark to say that there were no terrorist attacks on 
U.S. soil while President Bush was leading the country--except for just 
9/11, only the terrorist attack on 9/11. And I realized that I was 
witnessing the birth of a new form of political discourse from the 
right wing in this country: The exception. The exceptional exception, 
the exception that proves the rule or disproves the rule, as the case 
may be.
  So I'm expecting that in the future, we'll hear from the right wing 
the claim that no cities drowned under the Bush administration--except 
for New Orleans. And that there were no wars that were started by 
mistake under the Bush administration--except for the war in Iraq. And 
that the Bush administration added nothing to the Federal debt--except 
for $4.5 trillion, which works out to $15,000 for every man, woman, and 
child in this country. And that they respected all of our 
constitutional rights as Americans--except when they didn't. I think 
that we'll hear the Republicans claim that the Bush administration 
managed the economy quite well--except when they brought it to the 
brink of national bankruptcy.
  In fact, they'll claim that the Bush-Cheney administration was a 
complete success--except for the fact that it was an abject failure. In 
fact, what we learned in watching them for 8 years is that the reason 
why the Republicans hate government so much is because they're so bad 
at it. There are those people among us who lived through that terrible 
time and will look back on it, and they'll say that they'll vote for 
anybody on the ballot, absolutely anybody on the ballot with one 
exception, except if that person happens to be Republican.

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