Political Quotes

“I thank my friend from Hawaii for yielding, and I thank him for the opportunity to speak on behalf of this important honor we are bestowing upon the Army by congratulating them on their 235th birthday. The first time that I ever realized I was going to be given the honor to represent the United States Army was when they had a redistricting in Texas and I realized that my new district was going to have Fort Hood in it. To be quite honest, it was an overpowering challenge to be called upon to represent over 50,000 American soldiers and all those who work with those soldiers. I was a little bit taken aback, quite frankly. Mr. Edwards, as he pointed out, who has been so helpful to me in the transition of Fort Hood, Mr. Edwards had represented them for many years and had done an outstanding job, and I was going to be the new kid on the block going to Fort Hood. And so I went to my office and I said, the districts are changing, we've got to go visit soldiers, we've got to be with soldiers. I got the opportunity through the Speaker's Office before I had hardly spent any time at all in Fort Hood to go to Korea to visit soldiers who were stationed in Korea, many of whom were part of the soldiers contingency that would return to Fort Hood. I grew up as a small child with what was earlier today commemorated as the Korean War. To me it was just a map of the peninsula of Korea that I watched lines move up and down, but I know from people who came back what a terrible fight that was.…”