Joe Cunningham: “I had served on the Committee on National Security in authorization. I now serve on the Subcommittee on National…”

“I had served on the Committee on National Security in authorization. I now serve on the Subcommittee on National Security of the Committee on Appropriations, and I want to tell my colleagues, every single member on those two committees, I have the greatest respect for what they try to do to bolster our military and our men and women. And my colleagues, some of them say, ``Why not wait? Why can't we wait just a few days?'' The President of the United States last night deployed ground troops to Iraq. Just imagine, just imagine what would happen if Saddam Hussein goes into Kuwait again, and the turmoil and the loss of lives, and think about how difficult it would be to bring up a resolution like this if we waited. There has been talk about Ramadan. Well, there is another religious holiday: Christmas. Think about how hard it would be to bring up this resolution. If this goes beyond January 6 into a next Congress, then we have a constitutional problem. And the public, they want this over. I agree they want it over, and that is why we are proceeding on, to get it over. We would have to start this process all over again. The public does not want that I say to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde) or the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers); they want it done. As a matter of fact, talk about polls; in the Washington Post poll they talked about if this article goes through, almost 60 percent of the American people would ask the President to resign.”