House Debate on Iraq: Latest Highlights

MADELEINE BRAND, host:

And now to Washington now. Coming up, we'll talk with NPR's Andrea Seabrook on Capitol Hill about the House vote to oppose President Bush's troop surge in Iraq. They voted after four days of speechifying. NPR's Mike Pesca followed the arguments, the tactics, and especially the words.

MIKE PESCA: During the four days of debate, passions have been commensurate with the issue, the war, but seemed outsized when held up against what was actually under consideration: 97 words, a sentence, the first half of which was really a platitude. We support the troops. Congressional resolution as bumper sticker.

Actually, like a bumper sticker, that clause has been a sticking point. Surge proponents argue that there is no supporting the troops without reinforcing the troops. Underneath all this was a single word - patriotism. Ninety-two times in the first three days of debate, members of Congress had said patriotism, patriotic, or unpatriotic. Overwhelmingly, the people saying it were Democrats and a dozen or so Republicans who supported the resolution. They resented the accusation.

Yesterday, North Carolina Democrat Mel Watt and New York Republican Peter King engaged in as much of a colloquy as House rules allowed.

Representative MEL WATT (Democrat, North Carolina): I am just sick and tire of people telling us that we are unpatriotic and not supportive of the troops.

Representative PETER KING (Republican, New York): Reclaiming my time. Reclaiming my time. I never suggested unpatriotic. I said your questioning the competency or the credibility -

PESCA: Some Democrats honestly felt as if their patriotism is being questioned. Some Republicans honestly feel that that was ridiculous, that it was their perception only. Here's Steve Buyer of Indiana.

Representative STEVE BUYER (Republican, Indiana): I've not heard anybody on this side of the aisle call any of my Democratic colleagues unpatriotic. So the gentleman who just spoke protests too much. Maybe that's - he has some deep feeling inside, has some guilt inside perhaps. I don't know.

PESCA: He doth protest too much argument, popular on playgrounds as the I know you are but what am I gambit. Though to be fair to Mr. Buyer, you should hear the line that got his dander up. It was provided by Tim Ryan of Ohio.

Representative TIM RYAN (Democrat, Ohio): Now, nobody questioned the Republican Party's patriotism and nobody asked them if they supported the troops. Again, we called you incompetent, we said you were incapable, we said you were derelict in your duty, we said you should have provided oversight and you didn't, but we never called you unpatriotic. Now, enough of the unpatriotic business.

PESCA: Sadly, the debate dove more often than it soared. But there were moments of eloquence. For imagery, there was New York's John McHugh saying that in America the tepid resolution will speak only in whispers - whispers, he repeated - but in other lands it will crash like thunder. On the other side of the debate was Texas's Al Green, who held forth like an impassioned preacher.

But not all of the impressive rhetoric was performance-based. Take Arizona's Jeff Flake, the rare congressman ready to acknowledge the weaknesses of the arguments being put forth by his side. Flake came out opposed to the resolution but then went on...

Representative JEFF FLAKE (Republican, Arizona): This is not to say, however, that we shouldn't be having this discussion. Some have said that simply debating this resolution emboldens our enemies. Perhaps they are right. But we would not suspend due process in this country because it might embolden criminals. It is a price we're willing to pay.

PESCA: It was one of the very rare examples of not simply civility of tone but an attempt at actual intellectual integrity rather than the Soundbite-tailored zinger.

Mike Pesca, NPR News, New York. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.