Steve Israel: “I have always believed firmly in the qualities of civility in this House, and bipartisanship and constructive dialogue…”

“I have always believed firmly in the qualities of civility in this House, and bipartisanship and constructive dialogue and engagement and respect for one another's disagreements. In fact, last night I spent an hour on this floor with Members on both sides of the aisle talking constructively in a bipartisan Center Aisle Caucus Special Order on Iraq. And we managed to put our political differences aside and talk not about left or right, but moving forward. And so civility is critically important to me and has been since coming here nearly 8 years ago. But I must say, Mr. Speaker, that when I heard of the comments of Rush Limbaugh, when I heard him impugn the integrity of our soldiers, when I heard him call them phonies, I had just about had it. How dare he attack our soldiers. How dare he impugn their integrity. How dare he attack their credibility. There is no place in America for anyone to attack our soldiers while they are fighting in combat or when they have come home. I don't care what the reason, Mr. Speaker. There is no place in America for that, particularly coming from someone who believes that he is the 'gold standard' of patriotism, who believes he has a monopoly on patriotism, who has accused anyone who dissents with a particular policy with which he disagrees as a traitor. What is patriotic, Mr. Speaker, about calling American soldiers phonies? What is patriotic about that?”