[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 22157]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               TRAMPLING ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN AMERICA

  (Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. America, your freedom of speech was 
trampled on yesterday. This new Democratic leadership quashed any 
semblance of free speech here on this House floor. This is not just a 
procedural matter, mind you. This is a matter for all Americans.
  You see, each Member of Congress represents 600,000 constituents. 
That is 600,000 American voices that were quashed yesterday. As I say, 
this is not just a Republican issue, for their voices were quashed, but 
so were Democrat and Independent voices as well.
  But in fact, this is nothing new for the new Democrat leadership. 
Just a week ago we had to come to this floor to make sure we could 
fight to keep the radio waves and the media opening dealing with the 
Fairness Doctrine. Prior to this, we had to fight to make sure that the 
centuries-old tradition of bipartisanship would not be broken. Prior to 
that, we had to fight to make sure that there would be transparency in 
earmarks, and all the Republicans fought on the side of openness and 
freedom of speech.
  The Democrats say they tolerate all diversity, but apparently 
diversity not of thought and speech.

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