CLYBURN ON VETO OF IRAQ ACCOUNTABILITY ACT
WASHINGTON, DC—Below are remarks from House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn on the president’s veto of the Iraq Accountability Act.
“Today marks the four-year anniversary of the president’s ‘Mission Accomplished’ speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
“We also mark another solemn milestone today—the deadliest six-month period since the war began.
“Yet tonight the president vetoed legislation that would end an open-ended commitment for this war, holds the Iraqi government accountable and provide the administration with the exit strategy it lacks. Furthermore, the Iraq Accountability Act provides funding for our troops beyond the president’s request, honors the promises to our veterans and creates a new direction in Iraq. The president had an opportunity to chart a new course in Iraq, and I am disappointed that he rejected that option.
“The Democrats in Congress will once again invite the president to discuss a compromise on this emergency spending bill. We hope for a constructive conversation with the president tomorrow.”
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Jeffrey Sewell
schotlinepress.wordpress.com 
I disagree. There was too much added in as pork. Do we have line item veto? It should be used in bills like this.
Its typical for Clyburn to disagree with Bush’s actions I wonder if Clyburn would have disagreed with Roosevelt’s actions after Dec 7 or maybe Trumans decision on Hiroshima.
I also have to wonder if there was any of Clyburn’s pork in the bill as well like a bridge to nowhere.
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known, and he carries his banners openly. But the traitor moves among those within the gates freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very hall of government itself. For the traitor appears no traitor. He speaks in the accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their garments, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in hearts of men. He rots the soul of a nation. He works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city. He infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A Murderer Is Less To Be Feared.” Cicero, 42 B.C.
It appears that Clyburn hates President Bush more than he loves the USA and is willing to do anything to make him look bad including losing the war against terrorism.
Jim, can you not remember the Killing Fields of Vietnam?
The USS Abraham Lincoln’s mission WAS accomplished four years ago.
Clyburn has no surprises. Of course he would vote for a pork-laden bill that favors our enemies by giving them our surrender date.
WALKING THE PARTY LINE, WILL SAY OR DO ANYTHING TO DISTROY THE US.
Same old Clyburn, a liberal, Socialist who is worthless in our 6th district. He is one of those who voted to not impeach Clinton, but yet continues to bash Bush. The Democracts have no plan for our country other than to put down the Republicians.
A leader he is not!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Clyburn certainly isn’t with it. He says the Democrats invited President Bush to the White House to talk about a compromise.I thought The President lives in the Whitehouse and he is the one that invited the Democrats to talk about a compromise.This is typical of most liberal Democrats.They never tell the truth but seem to twist things the way they want them. The American people see right through all these lies and because of this the Dems are going to see a backfire in the 2008 elections.They are against everything the President is for with no plan or strategy of their own other than to throw up th white flag against their own country to our enemies.
Clyburn fits in well with the other dis-connected liberals in our government today. They voted for it before they voted against it!! It is disappointing to see Clyburn so consumed by the power of his position instead of the power of his convictions. But I guess if you don’t have any convictions, you can’t be passionate about them. Clyburn might do a good job as a weatherman at his local TV station. There his position will be consistent with which way the wind is blowing!
How many more of our young men and women must die before we see that war is never the answer?
Jim Clyburn’s vote to fund the troops, set a timetable for their return and fund heretofore not provided up-armored vehicles and adequate medical treatment for our wounded soldiers is a vote we should all be proud of. Supporting our troops means giving them what they need in the field and bringing them out of an unending civil war that we cannot possibly win. Supporting our troops means getting them out of Iraq–not treating them as disposable cannon fodder in an endless civil war between Shiites and Sunni Muslims. Bring these brave men and women back to the families that need them and let the Iraqis settle their own differences–which will not happen until and unless US combat troops are removed from the maelstrom.
The comments above are profound and informative. Surely the voters in Clyburn’s congressional district are caring and intelligent people. Why then do they continue to elect a congressman who is blinded by partisan politics and is so out-of-step with the citizens of our great state?
Rep. Clyburn’s support of a seriously flawed democratic bill was expected–but still disappointing. Benchmarks, dates, etc. are fine when constructing a home or building, however, war against a committed and irrational enemy is not quite as predictable as receiving the next load of bricks. Japan, and Vietnam, have taught us that. In one, Japan, the people of the United States recognized the threat to our way of life and joined with the elected representatives to make the sacrifices to win. In the other, Vietnam, times had changed. The country was heavily influenced by a very liberal media; our representatives had turned into self-serving politicians; a small, but dedicated and committed goup of extremists had developed that believed and preached that America was bad. They were willing to see America defeated and her future placed at risk simply to satisfy their personal agendas. The political leadership put on their sheep suits and sold out the military.
Right after 9/11 it was politically correct to support the efforts of President Bush to identify and eliminate those extremists dedicated to destroying our way of life. The democrat extreme played the game and waited for an opportunity to politicize the war with the hope of recapturing control of the federal government. They partially succeeded.
Now the same coalition of groups that resulted in a US surrender and defeat in Vietnam have reconstituted with the same goal–a US defeat or surrender. Why? To satisfy an agenda aimed at creating drastic changes in our society. To make the US, in effect, a socialist country ruled by an elite group.
I pray that changes in the conduct of the Iraq war will be successful and that President Bush, for all his faults, will not waver in his effort to protect this country.
The Democrats want us to loose the war on terrorism. That is the only way they can appear to the Nation as being correct. They don’t have any ideas and they don’t care about families. They just want higher taxes for struggling families. So they add pork to the bill.
Nothing shows the absurdness of the people who have hi-jacked the democrat party as does this bill!
How can an entire party vote for this bill that the President very wisely vetoed?
The bill showed the complete lack of concern for our country and the future of our children. The democrats haven’t a clue about running the country – neither do they care about the country. Their obsession with making President Bush look bad in order to obtain more democrats in the next congress has reached a hysterical peak! The entire set of democrat “leaders” is concentrating of this one agenda (get Bush at all cost!) I heard a democrat ask a company executive if their executives were “Patriotic.” How could he possibly ask someone if they were indeed patriotic after casting a vote himself giving aid and comfort to the the enemy? My only thought was that in time of war the entire lot voting for this bill should be lined up and shot as traitors! If not vetoed by the President this bill would assure victory to an entire society that has sworn to eliminate us from the face of the earth. Centuries ago this threat was not of significance – they had not the means to do so – today they have such means at their disposal (Remember 9/11 more people killed than at Pearl Harbor?) and are demonstrating their willingness and ability to do it! One of our troops killed in this war is one too many but better we fight on their soil than have them keep coming to ours! May we quit being so critical of this great country of ours and show the resolve to keep it for our children – most of the world would risk their lives to live here – how many fences have we built to keep our people from leaving as have other nations? We need to build fences to keep out the ones who are bent on destroying us.
Typical Clyburn,he’s puppet for the Democratic Party,the only way he could win the office was to change the district’s lines to ensure he was elected,and he hasn’t done 1 thing for the 6th district,unless it was in his own interest,have you ever heard of term limits,it’s time for him to go.
“Aaron” and Kelly Elmore are both, no doubt, well-meaning idealists. The cannot see, apparently, that there are things more despicable than war: namely, cowardice and domination by evil. Evil exists, regardless of the dreany idealism of the left, and the present-day Jihadists are one of the most obvious embodiments of evil. Either we fight them in Iraq and Afghanistan, or we end up fighting them here. The alternative truly is to be dominated by the Jihadists. How many of the liberal left would like to see Sharia law enacted in the U.S.?
Finally, the only way to deal with those who behead their prisoners and show it on videotapt is to make such behavior cost them so much in terms of their own lives, that they will change their fanatic ways and ask for peace. GOD BLESS THE U.S.A!1
K. Pierce, we have term limits in the form of votes. If the people will get off their duffs and VOTE, the wrong people will not continue to be elected. The problem is that the average citizen is too apathetic to make the effort, no matter how difficult, to go to the polls and vote. Meanwhile, those committed to a particular candidate for their own personal or selfish reasons DO turnout and that’s often the reason bad politicians get re-elected. Clyburn’s greatest fear would be for 90% to 100% of district 6 voters to actually vote. If that happened, he would surely be OUT.
There are a lot of people here that seem to support the war, but have nothing to say concerning the real facts leading up to the war and the war itself. Do any of you have children dying for this (civil war)? Our soldiers, at most times, can’t even see the enemy, because the death comes in the form of roadside bombs. How can anyone say if we don’t fight them in Iraq or Afghanistan, that we will fight them over. Well, please be advised, they are already here! God said he would confound the wise and it appears the so-called wise in our Government from the President to all of our elected officials have no inkling of what’s right and how fix Iraq. And please, I am not a democrat or a republican, I don’t respect either of these meaningless labels. I am an American and proud to be one.
U.S. Navy Chief (Retired)