Comments Of Senator Patrick Leahy
On Republican Leaders’ Efforts
To Stall A Debate
On The President’s Planned Escalation
Of The War In Iraq
Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2007

“It is regrettable that the Bush Administration pushed the partisan button to derail the first real Senate debate on the Iraq war in four years.  This is a debate that, if anything, is four years overdue. 

“Last fall the American people spoke loudly and clearly that they wanted to end Congress’s rubberstamping ways.  The Republican leadership’s efforts to prevent this debate reveal remaining vestiges of the rubber stamp that has so poorly served the nation.  There is strong bipartisan disagreement in Congress and in the country with the President’s escalation of the war in Iraq.  By blocking this debate, Senate Republican leaders are tacitly supporting President Bush’s escalation plan.  I hope the American people will let it be known that they want the Congress to have this debate.” 

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