[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9145]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   NEW FOCUS TO BRING OUR TROOPS HOME

  (Mr. KUCINICH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, congressional Democrats are so sure that 
we will win back the Congress in 2006 on the Social Security issue that 
many have stopped challenging the administration on the war on Iraq: 
Let us take the war off the table as an issue and focus on other 
issues.
  It is not a new strategy. It was pursued by congressional Democrats 
in 2002 when our leadership supported the war in Iraq. We lost. It was 
furthered in 2004 when our nominee supported the war. We lost. We lost 
a chance to regain the Congress and take back the White House, and the 
American people lost a chance for a new start. Why? Because we did not 
challenge the central vulnerability of the administration that led this 
country into war, into a war based on lies and misrepresentations.
  Democrats' failure to challenge the war represents a failure of the 
two-party system. For the Democrats to become politically viable in 
2006 and 2008, we must take on this administration on the War on Iraq, 
not giving them more money to keep the war going. We must move to cut 
off funds, to bring our troops home, to get out of Iraq, to make those 
who lied to us to get us into war accountable, to hold them accountable 
in the courts.

                          ____________________