John Hall: “I am proud to join my fellow new Members of the class of 2006. Freshmen, new Members, whatever you want to call us, I am…”

“I am proud to join my fellow new Members of the class of 2006. Freshmen, new Members, whatever you want to call us, I am really honored to be here with all of you and to tell you, speaking of oversight, about my trip this last weekend to Iraq. I think it's one of the most important functions the Constitution gives to Congress, the power, the sole power, to make war and to fund that war should it decide that it needs to happen. I flew out on a congressional delegation that was led by our fellow classmate, Dave Loebsack, Congressman of Iowa. And after a few hours of sleep in Kuwait, we were flown in by a C-130 to Balad Airbase in Iraq. On the way in, the plane's crew deployed flares against a perceived threat from the ground. I never found out exactly what they saw, but they fired flares for protection. We got a tour of the base and the Air Force Theater Hospital there. We spent a night in the Green Zone. I slept in a guest room in one of the pool houses by one of Saddam's palaces, with a big Olympic swimming pool and gold fixtures and a marble bathroom that the guesthouse had. And I understand this is a subject of some friction with the Iraqis who feel that after 4 years we should have handed over the national palaces to the Iraqi people rather than inhabiting them ourselves, but that's another subject.”