[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 38 (Tuesday, March 16, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H1466]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1445
                       THE DEFINITION OF COURAGE

  (Mr. LaTOURETTE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaTOURETTE. Madam Speaker, yesterday the President of the United 
States was in beautiful Strongsville, Ohio, and the biggest applause 
line he got was when he said, We need courage. We need courage to have 
an up-or-down vote on the health care bill.
  Now, I'm not a big fan of the health care bill, but I thought, My, 
that's pretty brave. And I looked up ``courage'': mental or moral 
strength to venture, persevere, withstand danger, fear, or difficulty. 
So good for the President; he's standing up for his principles.
  Well, imagine my surprise when I padded out in my jammies this 
morning and got The Washington Post, and the headline on the top of the 
fold is ``Pelosi may try to pass health bill without vote.'' And I 
said, No, she didn't. But, I thought, perhaps sometimes newspapers are 
misleading and the headline might not describe the story. But no, 
sadly, this is the story.
  So it's not courage that we're going to have here. So I went a little 
further in the dictionary. ``Cowardly,'' that fits. ``Craven,'' that 
fits. You go a little into the Ds; ``deceptive,'' that's appropriate. 
Go a little bit further, ``gutless,'' into the Gs. Right. 
``Spineless,'' under the Ss. And you can go all the way to the Ys, 
``yellow-bellied.''

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