Political Quotes

“this past Friday, President Clinton gave a major foreign policy speech at Georgetown University announcing his decision not to move forward with the plan to deploy a national missile defense. It took the President 7 years and 8 months of his administration to finally make a speech about missile defense. He did not make a speech after 26 young Americans came home in body bags because we could not defend against a low complexity Scud missile. He did not make a speech after in January of 1995 the Russians almost responded with an attack on the U.S. because they misread a Norwegian rocket launch, an attack that we could not defend against; and he did not make a speech 2 years ago after the North Koreans test-fired their three-stage missile which the CIA now claims can hit the U.S. directly. But he did make a speech this past Friday. I was not surprised, because his position has been consistent with both he and Al Gore for the past 8 years. In fact, Mr. Speaker, I could respect the President if he would have come out publicly and simply said, ``I disagree with the Congress and the American people. I don't support missile defense and will not during my administration move forward.'' That is what he has done for 8 years. In fact, the day that my bill came up on the House floor for a vote just a year ago he wrote a letter to every Member of the House opposing the bill, saying please vote against it.”