Kendrick Meek: “You know what they say. They have Democrats and Republicans and members of the Appropriations Committee, and I happen to…”

“You know what they say. They have Democrats and Republicans and members of the Appropriations Committee, and I happen to be on the floor with two of them. One is a cardinal and one thinks that he's actually running the country, but I would say that as we continue to talk about this, especially in Armed Services, and Chairman Ike Skelton has done an excellent job in the defense authorization bill, getting us to a readiness stage where we can deal with the issues, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, that you outlined. These are very important issues, especially the Gulf Coast States or any State that has a, Kansas for instance, it has a natural disaster or have a disaster where they need the National Guard to have the equipment that they need, it's in that authorization bill, and I want to thank not only my colleagues on the committee but also Mr. Skelton for all of his hard work on the authorization end. But I think it's also important for us to note that our mission, we talk about redeployment. We're talking about redeployment and deploying a diplomatic corps to work with the Iraqi Government and have a surge in diplomacy or an escalation in diplomacy. Why can't we get other countries to join us? Well, why would they want to join something that is going to create more terrorism or terrorists in their country? That's what we're doing, and so I think it's important for everyone to understand that. And I share that with my constituents when I go out to speak to them.”