Sherrod Brown: “back in 1838, the conservative leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives passed a rule prohibiting the discussion…”

“back in 1838, the conservative leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives passed a rule prohibiting the discussion of slavery, essentially banning the debate of slavery in this body, which was the largest blot on our national heritage. For 4 years, people were not allowed to debate the issue of slavery on the floor of the House of Representatives. Former President, then Congressman John Quincy Adams, night after night, day after day, week after week, came to the House floor, and not being able to debate slavery, he read letters from his constituents, most of them women, who could not vote in those days in the middle of the 19th century. So he read letters from his constituents protesting government policy on slavery. Today, we have seen in this body the continued suppression of debate on whether or not the Bush administration told the truth about Iraq, a continuation of disallowing of amendments that would have provided and supplied for our soldiers better than they have been, and that the military is able to, and so, as a result, Mr. Speaker, today I want to read letters from my constituents about some of those issues. Sharyn from Fairlawn, Ohio, writes: No to $87 billion to Iraq. Yes to education that has suffered under President Bush. Yes for the creation of jobs that have suffered under Bush. Yes for giving financial aid to the small business manufacturing industry that has suffered to the point of near extinction. Let us get our country back.…”