[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 20]
[Senate]
[Page 27348]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       A SUCCESSFUL FIRST SESSION

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I listened carefully to my good friend, 
the Democratic leader, give his evaluation of the year that is coming 
to a conclusion. Let me just suggest that I, not surprisingly, see it 
somewhat differently. In my couple of decades here in the Senate, this 
has been quite possibly the most successful first session of a Congress 
in my time here.
  We began the year by passing a much needed class action reform bill 
that was long overdue to deal with one of the areas of the litigation 
craze that is bad for American business and bad for our economy. We 
followed on with the Bankruptcy Reform Act, long in the making, way 
overdue, to deal with people who have increasingly decided not to 
accept their responsibilities and pay their debts.
  We passed a budget, which is never easy around here, tax cuts, a 
Central American free-trade agreement, an energy bill, and a highway 
bill. We confirmed a new Justice to the Supreme Court. We passed a 
terrorism reinsurance measure and a pension reform bill.
  It has been an extraordinarily successful first session of a 
Congress, and we have much to be proud of as we go toward the 
Thanksgiving holiday.
  Even though my assessment of our accomplishments here differs 
dramatically from that of the Democratic leader, let me say to all our 
colleagues, Democrats and Republicans alike, we have much to be 
thankful for this Thanksgiving. We hope everyone will enjoy the 
holiday, come back refreshed for what we anticipate will be a very 
brief session the week of December 12.
  I also want to say a word about Iraq. It is much in the news these 
days. The Senate spoke clearly this week that it is not in favor of 
cutting and running. On a bipartisan basis, the Senate said we will not 
cut and run in Iraq. That is the message of the votes that we had 
earlier this week. We intend to stay the course. We are winning in 
Iraq, and the policy is to win.
  How do you measure success in Iraq? You measure it by the election 
last January which brought into office a temporary democratic 
government. Everyone remembers the ink-stained index fingers that were 
held up proudly by the Iraqis as they, at risk to their own lives, went 
to the polls and elected an interim government.
  Last month on October 15--by the way, back in January, there was a 
60-percent turnout, the same as our turnout last November and ours was 
60 percent, higher than the turnout of 50 percent before that. The 
Iraqis turned out the same percentages last January as we did here, and 
I don't think any Americans were afraid they were going to be shot or 
blown up by a bomb if they went out to vote.
  If that were not good enough, in the constitutional election on 
October 15, 63 percent of Iraqis turned out, and large numbers of 
Sunnis who had boycotted the election earlier began to participate.
  Clearly, Iraq is heading in the right direction. Surveys taken in 
September indicate Iraqis are far more optimistic about their future 
than we are about ours in the United States. They are more optimistic 
about their future than we are ours here. So the Iraqis feel they are 
on the right path. They are going to finish the job on December 15 when 
they elect the first permanent democratic government in Iraqi history, 
a fairly unusual thing in that part of the world, I think we will all 
agree.
  Next year, that permanent democratic government will increasingly be 
responsible for its own future and the fate of its own citizens as the 
Iraqi military improves month after month.
  So we do, indeed, have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. 
Most of all, we are grateful for our wonderful troops who have done an 
astonishing job in Iraq. They are proud of their work. They are 
somewhat perplexed about the perception that they are failing when they 
all know they are succeeding dramatically. Hopefully, in the new year, 
we will be able to do a better job of getting out the entire story in 
Iraq, which is that dramatic progress is being made. After all, when 
this democratic government is elected on December 15, it will be less 
than 3 years from the time Saddam Hussein was toppled to the election 
of a permanent democratic government in Iraq. It took us 11 years in 
this country to get from the Declaration of Independence to the writing 
of the Constitution in our first democratic election.
  We are very impatient for immediate success. In fact, the Iraqis have 
come a long way in a short period of time under very difficult 
circumstances. We are proud of them and, most of all, we are proud of 
our troops who made it possible for that to happen.
  With that, Mr. President, I think it is time to begin to wrap up in 
the Senate.
  First, I congratulate the House of Representatives and the Senate. We 
will shortly be passing a bill to honor a great American, Rosa Parks, 
by placing a statue of her in the Capitol. I am very gratified by the 
swift action of the House, followed on by the Senate tonight. We have 
assured that Americans who visit this place 100 years from now will see 
her statue and reflect on how one woman's courage altered a nation.
  I am also pleased and grateful to my colleagues, particularly Senator 
Dodd in the Senate and Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr., in the House, 
who took the lead over there for moving quickly to accord Ms. Parks the 
honor she so richly deserves. I look forward to the day when her statue 
is unveiled and placed in this historic building alongside other 
American heroes.
  Ms. Parks' passing on October 24, just a few weeks ago, left us with 
sadness, but also with deep gratitude to the gift she left all of us.
  I am reminded of Dr. Martin Luther King's conviction that human 
progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes 
through the tireless efforts of men. Today this Congress has taken 
steps to ensure Parks' achievements will never be forgotten.

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