[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 17686-17687]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       NEW DIRECTION IN CONGRESS

  (Mr. EMANUEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, for years the Republican Congress sat idly 
by while we spent billions of dollars in Iraq and lost thousands of 
lives, no questions asked.
  Now Republicans are starting to get nervous with the lack of results. 
On Monday, Senator Lugar said President Bush's plan to escalate the war 
in Iraq has very limited prospects for success and called on President 
Bush to begin to reduce U.S. forces. It's exactly what Democrats have 
been saying all along.
  From day one, the new Democratic Congress said that once we have 
accountability, benchmarks and reporting requirements, we begin to see 
the beginning of the end. I can now say that the end is in sight. 
Instead of rubber stamping a failed Iraq policy,

[[Page 17687]]

Democrats demanded that Republicans and the country measure the 
progress or the lack thereof of the President's plan for more troops, 
more money, more time and more of the same.
  Starting in July, we will put the administration of the Republicans 
to the test, a new direction in Iraq, or more of the same of the 
present course, vote after vote.
  We said last May that we would begin to see the beginning of the end. 
Just this week, we begin to see that light at the end of the tunnel on 
this failed policy.

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