Chris Van Hollen: “today the leadership of this House has failed both the American people and the people of Iraq. Today our country had a…”

“today the leadership of this House has failed both the American people and the people of Iraq. Today our country had a tremendous opportunity to stand united and join together in congratulating the Iraqi people on their elections for the first full-term National Assembly. We had a chance to send a shared message of gratitude to our troops and the families who have sacrificed so much. Instead, the Republican leadership chose the politics of division over unity of purpose. In a reprehensible act of blatant partisanship, they squandered a special opportunity to send a strong message and cynically exploited our troops for political gain. Today, Congressman Lantos offered us an opportunity to stand together by introducing a resolution that congratulates the people of Iraq on the recent election and expresses our thanks to the men and women of our Armed Forces who are serving there. That resolution would have received a unanimous vote in this House. But the Republican leadership did not want a unanimous vote in support of our troops and the people of Iraq. They denied us the opportunity to cast a vote on the Lantos resolution. The hypocrisy of their action should not be lost on the American people. At a time when we all want to celebrate the right of the Iraqi people to vote in Iraq, the Republican leadership denied this House the right to vote on the unifying resolution offered by Mr. Lantos.…”