Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), my colleague on the Rules Committee. Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. I won't need 1\1/2\ minutes, but I want to be clear for Members. The privileges that are afforded to Members of this House to vote on the war, those privileges are taken away by this rule. I want to assure the gentleman from Texas, my colleague and my friend, that I am not interested in grandstanding, and any such a suggestion I find offensive, quite frankly. What I am interested in is us doing our job. And I want to remind my colleagues that war is a big deal. It is a big deal, and it is long past time that this House treated it as such. We have a constitutional responsibility that we are not living up to. We voted in July overwhelmingly to say that if there are sustained combat operations in Iraq we are going to have a vote on that. Well, there are sustained combat operations in Iraq. We are much more deeply involved today than we were in July. And I predict by the time we come back in November we will be even more deeply involved. When are we going to do our job? When are we going to vote? That is what my complaint is about, I would say to the gentleman from Texas. My complaint is that we are not living up to our constitutional responsibilities. I thank the gentleman from Colorado for yielding.”