Albio Sires: “with President Bush's veto last week, it is clear that if this Congress is going to take this war in a new direction, we…”

“with President Bush's veto last week, it is clear that if this Congress is going to take this war in a new direction, we need some of our Republican colleagues to join with us. Unfortunately, it seems that the House Republicans are still willing to blindly follow the President, no matter the facts in Iraq. Consider this statement from Minority Leader Boehner over the weekend. He said, and I quote, ``We want a clean bill. We don't want artificial deadlines. We don't want artificial measures in there to try to ensure failure.'' Let's not forget that the artificial measures that the minority leader is referring to were actually measures designed by President Bush himself to hold the Iraqi Government accountable. These are critical measures that will put the pressure on the Iraqi Government to make political, diplomatic and economic reforms. So far, none of these benchmarks have been met. It is time that the House Republicans realize that the status quo is no longer acceptable to the American people. We have to keep pressure on the Iraqis to initiate these reforms and bring our troops home.”