[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14299]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    INDEPENDENCE DAY REPLAY OF 2000

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, coming back into town today and picking up 
a copy of one of the local papers, I read the headline, ``Members Seek 
UN Election Monitors.'' Quoting from today's Roll Call, ``a dozen 
Democratic House Members last week called on the United Nations to send 
monitors to oversee November's U.S. presidential election.''
  Mr. Speaker, I submit that I was astounded to read that in the paper 
today. It seems that there are people in this House who cannot get over 
the facts of the election that was held in the Year 2000, and the facts 
are that George W. Bush won that election. He won it in the 
constitutionally prescribed manner of a majority of electoral votes; he 
won on election day; and he won on every single recount held 
thereafter, until the Supreme Court said enough recounting 34 days 
later, and the counts were stopped.
  But the President even won in the Miami Herald's recount that came 
out, I forget, in February or March of 2001, well into the President's 
first term. The Miami Herald finally acknowledged the fact that indeed 
George Bush had won Florida's electoral votes and had indeed won the 
election.
  Those 34 days of transition time were critical to the start of this 
administration. We had an economy that was headed into a recession, 
and, as we found out later in that year, we had enemies of this country 
who were gathering strength and preparing to attack this country. 
Thirty-four days in transition were critical days that were lost.
  But now comes this group who says that the events of the 2000 
election are so serious that UN monitors are required on U.S. soil to 
monitor our electoral process.
  Mr. Speaker, I will tell you that the constituents of my district 
just simply do not understand what goes on in Washington, D.C. We have 
a candidate for the highest office in this land who says that foreign 
leaders would prefer him to be the President.
  Mr. Speaker, we have got a judicial branch that seems to keep its eye 
on what the foreign courts are ruling and what they are deciding.
  Now, I am sad to say, we have Members of this body who simply do not 
understand what ``sovereignty'' means, and how ironic is that at a time 
when we are celebrating sovereignty in the country of Iraq, we just 
celebrated Independence Day in this country, and Members of our own 
body do not grasp that simple concept.
  Mr. Speaker, when I was sworn in here 18 months ago, I swore an oath 
to uphold the Constitution. I think that is a good idea, to have that 
oath, to swear to uphold the Constitution. I think it might be a good 
thing if other Members of this body remembered why they are here.

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