Caucus Chairman Emanuel Issues Letter to Bolten on President’s Comments on Congress
September 5th, 2007 by Jesse LeeToday Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel released the following letter to White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten regarding President Bush’s comments on the United States Congress as reported by Sheryl Gay Stolberg in today’s New York Times:
The following is the text of the letter:
Dear Mr. Bolten:
It has long been the custom that members of Congress do not go overseas and criticize the President—that partisanship ends at the water’s edge. But reading today’s accounts of the President’s remarks in Australia, it is clear he has a different view.
Asked about the lack of political progress in Iraq, the President said Iraq’s Parliament had passed 60 laws, and added, “It’s more than our legislature passed.”
It was a false and gratuitous shot, which ignores the scores of laws we have passed, sometimes over the President’s strong objection, to promote economic fairness for America’s struggling middle class. From passing a long-awaited increase in the minimum wage to an historic reform of the student loan and grant program so millions more young people can achieve the dream of college, our Congress is offering new hope to the American people. We can debate these accomplishments at another time on another day.
But as a veteran of the political wars, I am not concerned about the slight as much as I am about the President’s spirited defense of the status quo in Iraq.
The truth is, the Iraqi Parliament has made virtually no progress on any of the major issues that must be resolved to end the civil war there. Their most noteworthy agreement was a resolution to adjourn for summer vacation, while our troops toiled in 115 degree heat to try and halt the bloodshed.
It is the same stubborn defiance of the truth that has marked his stewardship of this four and half year war. And the truth is this:
The valiant efforts of our troops cannot and will not substitute for real, determined steps on the part of the Iraqis to resolve the issues at the heart of their civil war.
So I am not asking for an apology. Like most Americans, I am merely asking the President to finally come to grips with the reality of the failures of the Iraqi leadership and the shortcomings of his own Iraqi policy.
We do not need cheap shots or photo ops. We need a change in policy to relieve our troops and put the Iraqis on notice that it’s long past time for them to take responsibility for their own future.
Sincerely,
Rahm Emanuel
Member of Congress
Rep. John Yarmuth (KY-03) responds to President Bush:
Rep. Yarmuth: “And I hope that the American people respond with the same degree of outrage which I think they would, and probably justifiably, if we were out there comparing him to Prime Minister Maliki. So it just — I’d like to expand on that a little bit because just for the sake of having fun, since the President likes to be cute and have fun when he makes his statements. Since he was so interested in the Iraqi Parliament, let’s talk about what the Iraqi Parliament has done with regard to some of the benchmarks that they were supposed to make progress on…” |