Don't forget that Newt threw a tantrum because he wasn't invited to

[zbdent]

sit in the front of Air Force One.

If the media would truly be so "liberal", the image would be Bill Clinton driving a station wagon, and Newt in his carseat in the back whining and crying and throwing his bottle and rattle.

[liberal N proud]

1. I can see it.

Newt sitting in his car seat with what ever he just ate smeared all over his face and down the front of him and bush on the left sucking his thumb and cheney on the right feeding newt a fist full of his own crap from his diaper.

[zbdent]

5. Wasn't that a "Blue Collar TV" skit?

Newt: "I made brown!"

Funny how the RWer/RWest of the bunch is the one making doodie and fart jokes and using a lot of bathroom humor.

[liberal N proud]

6. That was my visual

[On the Road]

2. Man, I Hope Newt Runs in 2008

He is such a partisan blowhard that he will alienate every fair-minded voter out there.

[havocmom]

3. Won't matter a fig how many he alienates if we don't get those machines

fixed.

We need to stop worrying about potential adversaries until we get the vote counting thing working.

[GOPBasher]

4. Amen to that.

[Tinoire]

7. Threw a temper tantrum AND shut down the government!

I will never forgive the man for that.

HOLD GOVERNMENT HOSTAGE (House of Representatives - January 03, 1996)





The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Connecticut is recognized for 5 minutes.

--

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I just want to make a quick comment on the comments of my colleague, the last speaker, who knows very well that there have been unbalanced budgets in this country under Republican Presidents, but never has there been a shutdown of the Government of the magnitude that we see today.

What we see here is a political ploy. It has very little to do with balancing the budget but it has to do with trying to hold hostage this Democratic President. It quite frankly is politics of the very worst kind, and I believe that the American public has some understanding of what is going on here.

Mr. Speaker, last month Speaker Gingrich shut down the Government because he did not like his seat on Air Force One. Now the Gingrich Republicans in the House of Representatives are at it again. This time they are holding the American people hostage in order to blackmail the President into agreeing to their massive cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the environment, all to pay for a tax break for the wealthiest Americans.

Make no mistake about it, this has been the Speaker's plan all along. As long ago as April of last year, the Speaker threatened to shut down the Government in order to get his way on the budget, and I quote him: `I don't care what the price is,' the Speaker said in April. `I don't care what the price is.'

It is this kind of childish philosophy that has isolated the Gingrich Republicans from responsible Republicans in the United States Senate who have joined Democrats in calling to open up the Government and put the employees back to work again.

`Enough is enough.' That is the quote from the majority leader of the other body in announcing that he has had it with this legislative blackmail scheme. Enough is enough. That is how the American people feel. Enough is enough for the 600,000 senior citizens who are losing their Meals on Wheels because of the Republican Government shutdown.




Enough is enough for the small businesses that are facing layoffs because they have not received the small business loans that they were promised, and enough is enough for the Federal employees who serve the public every day and who now have been betrayed,

Think of the Federal employees, of the Social Security office once located in the Murragh Federal Building in Oklahoma City. In April they survived the worst terrorist attack in our Nation's history, and today they are the target of political terrorists and are being forced to work without pay.

The Republican Party claims to be the party of fiscal responsibility, but this Government shutdown is costing taxpayers $50 million a day, $50 million a day. Thus far, the shutdown has cost hard-working taxpayers $550 million. That is right, taxpayers are paying hundreds of millions of dollars, and they are receiving no services in return. That is not fiscally responsible. That is not responsible at all under any set of circumstances.

Thus far, the House of Representatives has had 12 votes to reopen the Government, and only two Republicans have had the courage to join Democrats to end the irresponsible politics of the Gingrich Republicans and in order to reopen this Government.

Enough is enough. That is what the public wants is for this Government to open and not to be having a gun pointed at the heads of Federal employees or at the President of the United States.

Let us get serious here. We are sent here to do the work of the people, and that is to carry on the Government of this country every single day, and if the Gingrich Republicans who are, for political reasons, only keeping this Government shut down, at great cost to the American taxpayer, at great cost to the American public in terms of the services that we are bound to provide to people in this country, and they put their faith and trust in all of us who serve in this body, and we dare not turn our backs on the American public in the way that the Speaker of this House has, and the Republican leadership.

Woe to those who do this, for the public will turn its back on you.


http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r104:H03JA6-763: