New Democratic Leaders Deliver Remarks

NOVEMBER 16, 2006

SPEAKERS: U.S. REPRESENTATIVE NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE, 110TH CONGRESS

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE STENY HOYER (D-MD), HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER, 110TH CONGRESS

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC), HOUSE MAJORITY WHIP, 110TH CONGRESS

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE RAHM EMANUEL (D-IL), CHAIRMAN OF THE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS, 110TH CONGRESS

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE JOHN MURTHA (D-PA)

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE JOHN LARSON (D-CT), VICE CHAIRMAN OF THE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS, 110TH CONGRESS

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EMANUEL: This is one of those few times that I will actually be short, brief and to the point: Madam Speaker-elect, Speaker Pelosi.

(APPLAUSE)

PELOSI: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

What an honor it is to be nominated by my colleagues to be the speaker of the House. Everyone is very excited about the thought that I am the first woman speaker. I'm just absolutely delighted that we have a Democratic speaker and a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.

(APPLAUSE)

It's a pretty exciting day that I wish my parents could see. I'm sure they do from up above.

We're had our differences in our party. We have come together. I wish all of the American people could have heard the discussion of our caucus this morning. They would have heard speeches of mutual respect, regardless of who anyone was supporting for party office. They would have heard speeches of unity for a new direction for our country.

As you know, our colleagues chose our distinguished whip, Mr. Hoyer, to be the Democratic leader of the House.

PELOSI: I extend great congratulations to him -- and we will hear from him in a moment -- but look forward to working with him in a very unified way to bring our country to a new direction for all Americans, not just the privileged few.

Before handing over to him the microphone, though, I want to acknowledge the magnificent contribution of Mr. Murtha to this debate on the war in Iraq.

I thank him for his courage in stepping forward one year ago to speak truth to power. He changed the debate in this country in a way that I think gave us this majority in this November.

Mr. Murtha has won J.F. Kennedy's Profile in Courage Award for his courage. He's a great member of Congress. I was proud to support him for majority leader, because I thought that would be the best way to bring an end to the war in Iraq. I know that he will continue to take the lead on that issue for our caucus, for this Congress, for our country.

So I want to salute Mr. Murtha for his leadership.

Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

As I said, Steny came out a big winner today. It was a stunning victory for him.

We've had our debates; we've had our disagreements in that room. And now, that is over.

As I said to my colleagues, as we say in church, let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with us. Let the healing begin.

And with that, I would like to take with great pride, really, that I present a fellow Marylander -- well, that's where I was born -- a person who's served in the Congress for many years with great distinction, a person who will make a magnificent contribution to our country as the Democratic leader, the majority leader in the House of Representatives, the distinguished new leader, Leader-elect Steny Hoyer.

(APPLAUSE)

HOYER: Thank you very much, Madame Speaker. I have three daughters. I have two granddaughters. And I have one 14-day-old great-granddaughter.

And those young women are going to be extraordinarily proud of the fact that Nancy Pelosi has been selected to lead the Congress, the House of Representatives -- not just the Democratic Party but the House of Representatives -- as the first woman speaker.

But she is not the first speaker because she's a woman (sic). She is the first woman speaker because she is a person of deep values, keen intellect and extraordinary political ability.

HOYER: I am proud to have been selected by my colleagues as the majority leader.

My pledge to my caucus and my pledge to the country is that I will work as hard as I can, exercise as much talent as I have to ensure that the agenda that has been put before the American people by Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party, an agenda of change, an agenda to take this country in a new direction, an agenda to make the lives of our people better, an agenda which is going to reach across to the president of the United States and say, "Mr. President, we need to make a transition in Iraq; it is not working; we need to change the policy, not stay the course."

HOYER: I agree with Nancy Pelosi. Jack Murtha has been a courageous and outspoken leader for that cause.

We have had differences, Jack Murtha and I.

But Jack Murtha will continue to be one of the most significant leaders in the Congress of the United States as chairman of the Defense Appropriations Committee.

(APPLAUSE)

And we're all pleased that we're all going to be chairmen now...

(LAUGHTER)

So I begin my term as majority leader with that renewed pledge.

Nancy and I have worked together for four years, closely and effectively.

And we have created the most unified caucus in the last half century.

HOYER: Nancy and I, I think, have been a good team.

In my opinion, it was not that somebody was rejected today, it was that a team that had been successful was asked to continue to do that job on behalf of the American people.

Nancy, I look forward to doing that with you with great pleasure.

(APPLAUSE)

PELOSI: Mr. Murtha?

MURTHA: Thank you very much.

I know you'd like to know why I didn't win. I didn't have enough votes.

(LAUGHTER)

And so I'll go back to my small subcommittee that I have on Appropriations.

(LAUGHTER)

HOYER: Half the budget.

MURTHA: Yes.

But I appreciate -- and I said inside that I worked passionately all over the country trying to change the direction of the country, and I think I've played a big role in that. I'll continue to do that.

Nancy asked me to set a policy for the Democratic Party. Most of the Democrats signed onto it. And I think the Bush administration has beginning to get the word.

I visit these young people every week in the hospitals, when I'm in Washington.

MURTHA: And I talk to the military leaders all the time. The military leaders know there's a limitation to military power. They know that it's time for us to redeploy.

And Nancy's led that fight and I appreciate that. I congratulate Nancy. She's such a magnificent political leader; one of the best political minds I've ever seen.

And I congratulate Steny on his campaign. He ran a hell of a campaign and I can't fault anything that he did.

But my congratulations to the other leaders, and look forward to working with them to redeploy and to get these troops out of Iraq and get back on track and quit spending $8 billion a month.

(APPLAUSE)

PELOSI: I know the focus has been on the fight. But the fact is, today, we nominated a Democratic speaker of the House and we elected a great and distinguished new Democratic whip, Jim Clyburn from South Carolina.

(APPLAUSE)

CLYBURN: Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Nancy.

Like Steny Hoyer, I have three daughters. And just after the vote today I heard from one of them. And she said to me, "I understand congratulations are in order." But she also said to me how proud she was that Nancy Pelosi is going to make her future even brighter and her hopes even greater.

For those three daughters of mine and all others similarly situated, I want to say to you, Nancy, it is going to be the proudest vote I've ever cast when I vote for you to be speaker of the House.

CLYBURN: I want to say about my election as majority whip -- I told a story to the caucus today of my mother who had died at the age of 54. She died just after my first office -- first run for political office, which I lost.

She always told me about her dreams for her sons. She never lived to see any of them come true.

What this caucus did today in electing me majority whip is one more chapter in my life of trying to make sure that my mother's prayers and her dreams do not go unheralded.

I did a piece on the elections, a post-mortem, and I quoted from the Book of Ecclesiastes, the third chapter, where the preacher tells us that there's a time to throw stones and there's a time to gather stones.

CLYBURN: The elections -- a lot of stones were thrown. But that is behind us. Today, it's time to gather stones and together we are going to make this country a better place for all those who will definitely come after us.

I thank this conference for their vote of confidence. I thank them for making me the majority whip. I will do everything I possibly can to make this agenda of ours an agenda for the future of America.

Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

PELOSI: One of the joys of this morning's meeting was the election of Rahm Emanuel as the chair of the Democratic Caucus.

PELOSI: He will bring to that -- everybody thinks of Rahm as this very astute politician, cold-blooded, capable, calculating in terms of winning an election, and that's a modest view. He's that and many things more.

But Rahm Emanuel is motivated by policy, by meeting the needs of the American people. And I know that about him. I see it in his work every day.

And that's why I'm so pleased that he's going to join this committee, which will -- caucus -- which will have additional responsibility in establishing our policy, our priorities, and our new direction for all Americans, not just the privileged few, and to do it in a way that is relevant to the lives of the American people.

Rahm Emanuel, thank you for a great victory on Election Day. Congratulations on your victory.

(APPLAUSE)

EMANUEL: My grandfather came to this country in 1917 at 13 years old from the Russian-Romanian border. My father came to this country in 1959 from Israel.

And Jim talked about his mother and his father; Nancy talked about her parents and her family; and Steny and John and Jack.

I am so happy that my parents are still alive to see the kid that they used to -- stayed up late at night wondering what would ever come of him.

(LAUGHTER)

And to all those parents out there who have sleepless nights about their children -- and my parents are around -- that their middle son was here, has an ability to do something that my mother and father always taught me: that when you care about something and you believe in something, you never give up, you never give in until you accomplish it.

EMANUEL: And to all the mothers and fathers out there who are thinking of their children, dreaming dreams for their children, we are here as a party that will look forward to bringing the unity when those votes go up for the strongest ethical package in the history of the Congress; for a new minimum wage to make sure that there is respect and a living wage (inaudible) people who work for minimum wage; that we have that, if you want to send your kids to college, you have a cut in interest rates so you can afford that college education; that we redirect our energy policy and, once again, you have an energy policy that begins with the word "independence"; and once again, five years after 9/11, enact the package of the 9/11 Commission recommendations and get an up or down vote; and we restore fiscal discipline so the American budget, by having pay-as-you-go rules apply to the budget.

EMANUEL: All of us bring, from different ethnic backgrounds and from different experiences, the values our parents taught to make sure that the policies we have as a country reflect those values.

And not one of us will be merely a vote. But we will be a voice for the values our parents taught us. And I'm honored to have this responsibility that comes with chair of the caucus.

Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

PELOSI: Thank you, Rahm.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

PELOSI: We're applauding each other, in any event. We're very proud.

But I want to, again, congratulate Steny, Mr. Clyburn, and our new chair of the caucus, Rahm Emanuel, and bringing on a person who has been a part of the leadership, an important voice in our Democratic Party for addressing the needs of the American people, the new and ongoing vice chair of the caucus, John Larson of Connecticut.

(APPLAUSE)

LARSON: I know you've been waiting with baited breath for what I have to say. And let me say, first and foremost, what an honor it is to be selected by your colleagues and your peers.

And no greater honor for me to stand here today with a man and an individual who I have grown to respect and admire more than anyone in the United States Congress, and that's Jack Murtha.

I've been fortunate to serve with Jim Clyburn and see the steady hand of his leadership and logic.

And as the leader pointed out, we now have the dynamic Rahm Emanuel that will be leading the caucus as well.

LARSON: We've gone from, well, grits to gefilte fish.

(LAUGHTER)

But, nonetheless, it's that unity that we seek. Steny Hoyer was terrific today in this caucus in what he had to say and in joining our leader.

Our caucus -- our caucus -- represents the hopes and aspirations of America, and they are embodied in our next speaker, Nancy Pelosi.

We need what Roosevelt said for the American people: the warm courage of national unity. And this is the team that's going to bring it about. I commend each and every one of them.

Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

PELOSI: Thank you very much, John.

When we heard from our distinguished chair, he talked about Six for '06, not labeling it that way, which will be our agenda for the first 100 legislative hours of the new Congress.

Before we get to legislation, though, we will have a rules package that will hold this Congress to the highest ethical standard.

PELOSI: We will break the link between lobbyists and legislators. We will have openness and civility.

We have promised the American people that we will have civility and bipartisanship in the conduct of the House, and we will do just that. And we will implement our Six for '06 and other initiatives with fiscal discipline: no new deficits; pay as you go; no more heaping mountains of debt on to our children.

But in order to do all of that, we have to have our own unity in the Democratic Party, and I'm absolutely certain that we do and we will continue to do so.

We have a brilliant freshman class. I've told them they're independent representatives of their districts. We welcome the dynamism of their ideas.

PELOSI: We look forward to that freshman class, which made us a majority, to help develop the policies that will, again, address the needs of the American people.

And I also told them that, as speaker of the House, when I receive that gavel from whomever on the Republican side, I will receive the gavel on behalf of all of America's children.

Thank you all.

QUESTION: Nearly 60 percent of House Democrats defied your call to vote for John Murtha. In retrospect, what does that say about the wisdom of that endorsement and your clout within the Democratic Party?

PELOSI: I stand very, very proudly behind my endorsement of Mr. Murtha. As I said in my letter to members on Sunday -- that's the only time I weighed in publicly, and I have tried to help Mr. Murtha since then -- as I said in that letter, I believe the biggest ethical challenge facing our country is the war in Iraq.

For all the reasons that you know, that you don't need me to go into, it must be stopped.

PELOSI: And I thought that Mr. Murtha's elevation to a leadership position would serve that purpose.

The caucus has enormous respect for Mr. Murtha. They thought otherwise about the position from which he would lead the way on Iraq. And I am completely jubilant today to be elected by acclamation, unanimously, by my colleagues.

So I don't see it in any way...

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

PELOSI: No. I'm not a person that has regrets.

(LAUGHTER)

But I do -- again, as Steny knows -- we've worked together for many years. I have to be who I am. And I am a person who is committed to ending this war. It is a grotesque mistake that is costing lives, limbs, over a trillion dollars cost in dollars, reputation in the world, cost to our military. And I promised that I would do everything possible to end it.

The caucus thought differently. We are a unified caucus as we go forward under the leadership of Steny Hoyer as our House Democratic leader. I respect that decision.

HOYER: Let me make a comment on this. There's been much made in the press about Nancy and I running against one another for whip.

I made the point in the caucus today that Nancy and I did not run against one another. Nancy ran for whip and I ran for whip.

Nancy prevailed in that race.

For the last four years, Nancy Pelosi and I have worked hand-in- glove, closely together, to effect unity -- not unity for unity's sake, but unity for the purposes of standing up for the principles and values we think are important for our country.

I believe Nancy and I share those values. We may have, as everybody standing here, may have differences from time to time.

But the Republicans need to know, the president needs to know and the country needs to know our caucus is unified today.

HOYER: Now, I intend to do everything in my power, as I said in the caucus, to make Nancy Pelosi the most successful speaker in the history of the House of Representatives -- not for that purpose alone, but for the purposes of adopting policies that will make America a better country for all its people and make us safer and more secure abroad, as well.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

HOYER: We have signed on to three letters together -- Jack Murtha was a signatory of those letters, as well Harry Reid and Dick Durbin and the Senate leadership -- in which we said to president of the United States, "Your policy's not working, Mr. President. Stay the course is not an option; that we need to transition. We need to strategically and quickly redeploy. We need to get the Iraqis to do many things to bring resolve to the conflict. But if you can't do that, staying the course is not an answer."

Yes, we agree on that.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

PELOSI: Well, I don't know what the Republicans are planning here. But I am a co-sponsor of the legislation that you are suggesting.

So I certainly will be supporting it.

HOYER: I want to make one comment on that. We who live in the Washington Metropolitan area believe that the country ought to take it as a moral cause to ensure the fact that every citizen of the District of Columbia has a vote in the Congress of the United States.

It is the only capital in the free world that I know of who's citizens are disenfranchised.

I'm going to be working very closely with Speaker Pelosi on behalf of ensuring that enfranchise (sic).

END

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Nov 16, 2006 13:13 ET .EOF

Source: CQ Transcriptions

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