Newt Gingrich: “I rise for what some Members might find an unusual moment, an appeal to the House to, at least on paper, increase the…”

“I rise for what some Members might find an unusual moment, an appeal to the House to, at least on paper, increase the power of President Clinton. And here we are in the middle of the Bosnian exercise with troops in Haiti and with all sorts of concerns, and yet I stand here to say that for America, the right thing to do is repeal these provisions, for America. The reason is simple. First of all, I listened carefully to my good friend, the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Hamilton], who I think is a very serious and a very committed scholar of this. But he said something that all of us need to be aware of. He said, he complained, 'We have no role up front.' I want to make two points about this, because he is right. We have no role up front. We have no role up front because in an age of instantaneous change, as we were tragically reminded in Oklahoma City, there are times and moments when you need what the Constitution called 'the Commander in Chief.'”