[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16284]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    APOLOGIES FOR IRAQ AND KARL ROVE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, a few weeks ago I gave a speech about the 
importance of apologizing for doing something wrong, one of the first 
lessons that we are taught as children actually. Our capacity for 
saying I am sorry is part of what makes us a functioning and civilized 
society.
  Here in Washington, every time a Democrat uses strong rhetoric to 
condemn the politics or the policies of the Bush administration there 
is a relentless pressure from the Republicans for an apology, and it 
continues. It continues as a repeated pattern that is repeating itself 
right now with the Karl Rove affair.
  Democrats are right to be incensed that the President's chief adviser 
is alleged to have revealed Valerie Plame as a CIA operative, 
purportedly publicizing this information to get back at Plame's 
husband, Joe Wilson, for disagreeing with the Bush administration's 
assessment that Saddam Hussein was, to quote Vice President Cheney's 
flawed analysis, reconstituting his nuclear weapons program.
  Maybe my memory is failing me, but I do not recall any Republicans 
calling on Karl Rove to apologize for coldheartedly revealing the 
identity of a CIA operative as part of a political vendetta to get back 
at her husband. Nor has the Vice President apologized for his mistake 
about Iraq's nonexistent nuclear weapons program which led us into war.
  The personally destructive behavior that Republicans have engaged in 
to protect Karl Rove and another high ranking Bush administration 
official, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, Scooter Libby, 
actually might be their way to change the subject to avoid any question 
about the merits of the Iraq war and how it has been so poorly managed.
  Why do they want to avoid that discussion? Because the American 
people have completely lost confidence in the administration's Iraq 
policy. Where, for example, is the apology for the deaths of more than 
1,700 Americans? Not only is there no apology, Secretary Rumsfeld could 
not be bothered to personally sign condolence letters to their 
families.
  Where is the apology for sending young men and women to war without 
the proper protective armor on their bodies and on their vehicles?
  Where is the apology for pinching pennies on veterans health benefits 
when these brave soldiers return home?
  Where is the apology for the immoral doctrine of this preemptive war?
  And where is the apology for the gross deceptions used to justify it, 
for the missing weapons of mass destruction, for the cooked 
intelligence, for the phony al Qaeda-Saddam link?
  Where is the apology for wasting more than $200 billion for taxpayer 
money on this mistake, and for the poor leadership that led to torture 
of prisoners and prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib in Guantanamo?
  Where is the apology for committing our troops and our Nation to this 
mission without a postwar plan to secure the peace?
  Where is the apology for the arrogance that squandered America's 
international goodwill and damaged our relationships with our closest 
allies?
  And finally, where is the apology for revealing the identity of a 
good man's wife just because he disagreed with the administration on 
policy grounds?
  There is something wrong with our moral compass if we have to 
apologize for speaking bluntly, while our leaders can commit the 
biggest foreign policy blunder since Vietnam and get away without 
apology or accountability. To tell the truth, an apology would not be 
enough for everything they have done. An apology, after all, is just 
more words.
  It is time for action. It is time for accountability and it is time 
for Karl Rove's security clearance to be revoked. It is time for a 
tangible admission that the Iraq war was immorally conceived and has 
been incompetently managed. It is time for an end of the politics of 
personal destruction and an end of destructive national policies.
  If the President wants to earn back the Nation's trust he needs to 
end this shameful, shameful chapter in our Nation's history, and 
without apology he needs to bring our troops home.

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