[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 25718]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           FREEDOM OF SPEECH

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, yesterday there was a continuing resolution 
with a motion to recommit that attacked MoveOn.org. I voted against 
that motion to recommit, and I did it because it attacked the first 
amendment.
  There is a tradition in the House that we address the conduct and not 
speech, speech which is protected by the first amendment, that flag, 
and the Constitution, the Bill of Rights.
  Now, when we start to attack speech and don't attack other speech, by 
implication we approve of the other speech. This House by not attacking 
Don Imus for his statements about African American women, this House by 
not attacking the individuals who questioned Max Cleland's citizenship 
or his honor, this House that did not condemn Rush Limbaugh and his 
statements about Senator Hagel and Michael J. Fox, or Jerry Falwell and 
Pat Robertson who question people who are gay and lesbian and feminists 
for the attacks or Katrina.
  When we attack one group for speech and don't attack others, by 
implication we approve the other's speech, and that is wrong, and that 
is why the motion to recommit was wrong, and it is a dangerous 
precedent.

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