Bill Delahunt: “here we are again late at night asking questions. Madam Speaker, it is a rare commodity, unfortunately, in Washington…”

“here we are again late at night asking questions. Madam Speaker, it is a rare commodity, unfortunately, in Washington, D.C., when one speaks of courage. We witness courage all over America. We witness courage in terms of our men and women overseas risking their lives. We observe courage every day in our streets, particularly with our public safety officials. We clearly witnessed an extraordinary level of courage and heroism on September 11, but we seem to have a paucity of political courage because I believe and I think that most Americans share the view that political courage involves admitting that you are wrong when it is clear that you have made a mistake. Madam Speaker, all of the questions that the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee) posed to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland) elicited an obvious answer, that the President was wrong. But what I find most disturbing is the inability of this President to summon the political courage to acknowledge that he was wrong. It is certainly no disgrace to make a mistake, to be wrong. We have all done it. I do it every day. But what I think is particularly un-American, undemocratic, is a reluctance to be forthright and honest about your failures. We do not hear that from this President. That is sad. Because that kind of courage would be the earmark of genuine leadership, of leadership that would be embraced by all of us, irrespective of partisan differences.”