Here are his remarks in their entirety.
Mods -- official government record -- not copyrighted.
(I have added boldface.)
(Debate on the challenge to the Ohio presidential electors)January 6, 2005
Congressional Record - House
H121-122
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2005_record&page=H121&position=allJOHN CONYERS {closing comments}
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I want
to thank all the Members of the House
who have stayed here with us, who
have participated in the debate, who
have shared their views, as different as
many of them are, because this is the
way we work.
This debate, I think we all know, will
not change the outcome of the November
election. But we do know that out
of today’s debate, the Congress will respond
to the challenge that has been
raised here in connection with a better
system of voting, not just for Ohio but
for everywhere. A challenge has been
raised here this afternoon to hold true
bipartisan hearings to get to the bottom
of not just what went wrong in
Ohio but around the Nation on Election
Day. This day, the first time in
our history, that since 1877 this law has
been used in which the Senate and the
House have come together to say that
an objection has enough merit to keep
us here in this discussion.
Join us. Enact real election reform
and give the citizens the right to an operative
provisional ballot and give all
voters a verifiable paper trail. We
should never fear this debate in the
Congress, and I hope that today we
have a fair debate and that 4 years
from now, Mr. Speaker, we have an
election that all our citizens can be
proud of.
TOM DELAYMr. DELAY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to
claim the remainder of the time.
The SPEAKER. The gentleman from
Texas is recognized for the remainder
of the time.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Mr. Speaker,
can I ask how much time that is?
The SPEAKER. In the tradition of
the House, the gentleman from Texas
is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. DELAY. Mr. Speaker, what is
happening here today is amazing but
not surprising. Mr. Speaker, what we
are witnessing here today is a shame. A
shame. The issues at stake in this petition
are gravely, gravely serious. This
is not just having a debate. But the
specific charges, as any objective observer
must acknowledge, are not.
That is because the purpose of this petition
is not justice but noise.
It is a warning to Democrats across
the country, now in the midst of soul
searching after their historic losses in
November, not to moderate their party’s
message.
It is just the second day of the 109th
Congress and the first chance of the
Democrat congressional leadership to
show the American people what they
have learned since President Bush’s
historic reelection, and they can show
that, but
they have turned to what
might be called the ‘‘X-Files Wing’’ of
the Democrat Party to make their first
impression.Rather than substantive debate,
Democrat leaders are still adhering to
a failed strategy of spite, obstruction,
and conspiracy theories. They accuse
the President, who we are told is apparently
a closet computer nerd, of
personally overseeing the development
of vote-stealing software.
We are told, without any evidence,
that unknown Republican agents stole
the Ohio election and that its electoral
votes should be awarded to the winner
of an exit poll instead.
Many observers will discard today’s
petition as a partisan waste of time,
but it is much worse than that. It is an
assault against the institutions of our
representative democracy. It is a
threat to the very ideals it ostensibly
defends. No one is served by this petition,
not in the long run. And in the
short term, its only beneficiaries are
its proponents themselves.
Democrats around the country have
asked since Election Day, and will no
doubt ask again today, how it came to
this. The Democrat Party, the party
that was once an idealistic, forward-
looking, policy colossus. The New Deal,
the Marshall Plan, the Great Society,
the space program, civil rights. And
yet today one is hard pressed to find a
single positive substantive idea coming
from the left.
Instead, the Democrats have replaced
statecraft with stagecraft, substance
with style, and not a very fashionable
style at that.
The petitioners claim
that they act on behalf of
disenfranchised voters, but no such
voter disenfranchisement occurred in
this election of 2004 and for that matter
the election of 2000.
Everybody knows it. The voters
know it, the candidates know it, the
courts know it, and the evidence proves
it.
We are not here to debate evidence,
but to act our roles in some scripted,
insincere morality play.
Now, just remember: pre-election
memos revealed that Democrat campaign
operatives around the country
were encouraged by their high command
in Washington to charge voter
fraud and intimidation regardless of
whether any of it occurred. Remember,
neither of the Democrat candidates
supposedly robbed in Ohio endorse this
petition. It is a crime against the dignity
of American democracy, and that
crime is not victimless.
The Democrat leadership came down
to the floor and said this is a good debate;
we ought to be having a debate on
this issue.
This is not a normal debate. This is a
direct attack to undermine our democracy
by using a procedure to undermine
the constitutional election that
was just held.
If, as now appears likely, Democrats
cry fraud and corruption every election
regardless of the evidence, what will
happen when one day voters are routinely
intimidated, rights are denied,
or, God forbid, an election is robbed?
What will happen? What will happen
when, God forbid, this quadrennial crying
wolf so poisons our democratic
processes that a similarly frivolous petition
in a close election in the future
is actually successful, and the American
people are denied their constitutional
right to choose their own President?Mr. Speaker, Democrats must find a
way to rise above this self-destructive
and, yes, plain destructive theory of
politics for its own sake. A dangerous
precedent is being set here today, and
it needs to be curbed, because Democrat
leaders are not just hurting themselves.
By their irresponsible tactics,
they hurt the House, they hurt the Nation,
and they hurt rank-and-file
Democrats at kitchen tables all around
this country.
The American people, and their ancestors
who invented our miraculous
system of government, deserve better
than this. This petition is beneath us,
Mr. Speaker; but, more importantly, it
is beneath the men and women that we
serve.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues,
both Democrat and Republican, to do
the right thing. Vote ‘‘no,’’ and let us
get back to the real work that the
American people hired us to do.
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