[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2285]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      A WEAPON OF MASS DISTRACTION

  (Mr. FILNER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FILNER. Well, there they go again. The Commander in Chief has 
signalled the start of the culture wars, so they are here with their 
wedge politics, trying to divide us, trying to divide us as a Nation.
  Three million jobs lost since this President took office, a war in 
Iraq that we cannot seem to win, 545 of our bravest young men and women 
killed, more waiting as sitting ducks; but what we are going to talk 
about in this House is a constitutional amendment to preserve marriage. 
Talk about wedge politics at its finest. Talk about something to divide 
the Nation.
  Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Indiana, and I assume all those who 
are going to come after him, should look at the history of the United 
States and the Constitution, the Constitution which represents for us 
expanding the rights of all Americans, expanding.
  We went from giving the right to citizenship to African Americans to 
giving the right to vote to women, always expanding what the American 
Dream was about, always expanding what America ought to be. But now we 
are going to pass an amendment that restricts rights. Now we are going 
to pass an amendment that says do not look at jobs, do not look at the 
war in Iraq, do not look at any of the things that bother the American 
people at their dinner table, their lack of health insurance, their 
lack of quality education. No, let us focus on this constitutional 
amendment.
  Mr. Speaker, the Commander in Chief has unleashed his Weapon of Mass 
Distraction.

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