David Obey: “I think if this institution is to regain an ounce of credibility in the way it has dealt with this entire issue of the…”

“I think if this institution is to regain an ounce of credibility in the way it has dealt with this entire issue of the war in Kosovo, it must pass the Skelton amendment. I simply do not understand what I have seen in this House in the last 2 months on this issue. I have seen our good friends in the majority first vote against substituting a ground war for the air war that NATO is conducting. Then I have seen them vote against supporting the air actions that were being taken by our forces in the field. And then, in a double reverse that would make Barry Sanders proud, they voted to double the amount of money that they wanted to spend on the same war they said they did not want to see fought. I saw one member of the majority leadership in the other body stand up twice in meetings that we had with the President and tell the President that he was wrong to conduct military operations of any kind against Mr. Milosevic, and he even suggested that the United States was guilty of attacking a sovereign country. That same Senator, the day the peace accord was signed, then attacked the President because Mr. Milosevic was being allowed to stay in power under the agreement that was just signed.”