Political Quotes

“I apologize to the House for intruding at this late date, but it did seem to me, having the elected representatives of the American people vote on whether or not American ground troops ought to stay in Bosnia until infinity was a reasonable use of about 20 minutes. It is not ideal to do it this way, but the gentleman from California (Mr. Campbell), the gentleman from California (Mr. Condit), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kasich), the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Hilleary), the gentleman from New York (Mr. Serrano) and I submitted this germane amendment in a timely fashion to the Committee on Rules and we were told we could not debate it. My colleagues may not realize how important the issues have been that we have been dealing with, because they were so important, the ones we have been debating for the last couple of days, that we did not have a chance to vote on Bosnia. We are told that we are spread too thin. A number of Members have complained of the President's dispensing the troops to Bosnia. Being heard here today is important, because a lot of Members here have been heard on the subject of Bosnia. I am delighted to give them a chance to put their voting cards where their mouths have been. We are here faced with an amendment that says the troops have to leave by December 31. That is plenty of time. It does allow for troops afterwards, if they are needed, to pull out in an orderly fashion.”