Congressman Ryan

Ohio's 17th District is represented by 31-year-old Congressman Tim Ryan, Democrat, who rose Tuesday to speak during the hastily-called session on Rangel's draft bill. That bill was introduced over a year ago, in order to provoke debate about our military staffing and the way that the costs of the Iraq fight are being borne largely by poorer and darker-skinned citizens. The Republicans controlling the House have been ignoring it for months, until they began to get worried about rumors spreading on the Internet among college students that Bush is planning a draft as soon as he's re-elected.

Grabbing the dusty bill off the shelf, they quickly scheduled it for a vote yesterday, as a way of showing that, despite the "Democrat scare tactics that were promoting the rumor of a draft for purely political purposes", the Good Old Republican Party has no plans for a draft - see, we just voted it down!

Ryan's short speech is well worth a listen. Mac users should go here, instead. I'll look around and see if I can scare up better copies.

Here's the text, but you really ought to hear it.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.

I rise in opposition of this bill, but I would like to clarify something. We are not trying to scare kids. This President's foreign policy is what is scaring the kids of this country. And people have said today, why are people believing this? Why are people believing this big Internet hoax?

It is the same people who told us that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11; the same people who told us Saddam Hussein had something to do with weapons of mass destruction; the same people who told us we would be able to use the oil for reconstruction money; the same people who told us we would be greeted as liberators, not occupiers; the same people, the same President who told us the Taliban is gone; the same President who told us that Poland is our ally 2 days before they pull out; the same President who tells us Iraq is going just great; the same President who tells us the economy is going just great; the same people who told us the tax cuts were going to create millions of jobs; the same people who told us that the Medicare program only cost $400 billion when it really cost $540 billion.

So please forgive us for believing what you are saying. Please forgive the students of this country for not believing what you are saying. Not one thing, not one thing about this war that has been told to the American people or that has been told to these college students has been true. Not one thing. Bremer says we need more troops. The Pentagon says we need more troops, and this President cannot get them from the international community. There is only one option left. Let us be honest with the American people.

It's nice to know we are growing some young Congressmen who can call 'em as they see 'em.