Frank Pallone: “last week during debate on the $87 billion supplemental appropriations bill to fund military and reconstruction efforts…”

“last week during debate on the $87 billion supplemental appropriations bill to fund military and reconstruction efforts in Iraq, Majority Leader Tom DeLay said Members who had the audacity to challenge the Bush administration's foreign policy and not support the appropriations bill were not supporting our troops over in Iraq. This statement, Mr. Speaker, comes on the heels of statements that Mr. DeLay made last month after Senator Edward Kennedy seriously questioned the Bush administration's reasoning for the war in Iraq and its handling of Iraq during the postwar period. The majority leader called Kennedy's criticism "hate speech." During a speech at the Heritage Foundation on September 24, Mr. DeLay said, and I quote, "Ted Kennedy unleashed the most mean-spirited and irresponsible hate speech yet." One day earlier, the Associated Press quoted Mr. DeLay as saying, and I quote, that "Kennedy's brand of hate speech has become a mainstream in the Democratic Party."”