Cord Byrd: “Madam President, today--just today--I say this at 15 minutes until 3 p.m. on this day, the 4th day of October in the…”

“Madam President, today--just today--I say this at 15 minutes until 3 p.m. on this day, the 4th day of October in the year of our Lord 2002-- my office has received 1,400 telephone calls--just today. And almost every single caller has said: Wait. Slow down. Don't rush this through. If the Senator will allow me 1 more minute, I plead with those people out there, I plead with the American people, let your voice be heard. You need to be heard. You have a right to be heard. You have questions that should be asked and answered. Let the leadership of this Congress know that you don't want this resolution rammed through this Congress before the election. The life of your son may depend upon it. The life of your daughter may depend upon it. Get out there and let this leadership know that we should stay on our jobs--or that we should come home and talk with the people back home and put off this fateful decision which cannot be retracted except through another piece of legislation. Let the people back there speak to us and then come back after the election and make this decision so we will not be hearing the television ads and reading the newspaper ads with respect to politics while we have to make this decision. I hope the people will speak out. Let the hills and the mountains and the valleys reverberate with the sound of your voices. It is your country. Stand for it now.”