For Immediate Release
Office of the Vice President
December 5, 2003
Remarks by the Vice President at a Reception for Congressman John Sullivan
The Adam's Mark Hotel
Tulsa, Oklahoma
12:32 P.M. CST
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. (Applause.) Thank you.
(Applause.) Thank you all very much. (Applause.) Thank you.
(Applause.) Thank you. (Applause.) I don't know why I want to spoil
that by giving a speech now. (Laughter.)
Well, that's a great welcome. And, John, thank you. It's great to
be back in Oklahoma. And I appreciate the opportunity to join all of
you today. It's very nice to come hear kind words from a colleague
like John, but I want to thank him today in front of all of his
constituents for the great work he does every day for his district, for
the state of Oklahoma, and for the nation.
I'm pleased, as well, that Jim Inhofe is here today. He's been
doing a terrific job as your U.S. senator. Jim and I, of course,
served in the House of Representatives some years ago. I remember
campaigning for him when he ran for the Senate the first time. I'm
pleased to see Lieutenant Governor Mary Fallin, your fine mayor Bob
LaFortune, and, of course, a great former mayor, Kirk Humphries, the
man who we hope has a bright political future ahead of him. I'm sure
he does.
I also want to thank Wes Watkins, who's here today, my former
colleague in the House, for joining all of us. I just came in from
Washington where I started the day, as I always do, in our morning
meetings with the President. And he asked that I bring good wishes to
Tulsa and the people of Oklahoma from the President of the United
States, George W. Bush. (Applause.)
I must say, after the Texas-OU football game earlier this year --
(laughter) -- we OU fans had to be a little careful around the Oval
Office for a couple days. (Laughter.) But all is forgiven. Next
year, he swears, Texas will be back one more time. (Laughter.)
But I want to thank all of you, too, on behalf of the President for
the tremendous support we received in Oklahoma in the last election.
Of course, this is a state we carried by a 22-point margin. We didn't
need a recount to figure out who carried Oklahoma. (Laughter.) And we
certainly don't want to take any state for granted in the next
election, but we know we're going to do pretty well here come 2004.
Now, I've spent a lot of time in Oklahoma over the years. Of
course, I had the great privilege of running Halliburton for a while, a
fine Oklahoma company. I used to get to Duncan on a regular basis. I
had the privilege of working with many fine members of Congress from
Oklahoma. On the House side, of course, you're extraordinarily well
served by John Sullivan and his colleagues such as Frank Lucas, Tom
Cole, Ernest Istook. The President and I are delighted to have them as
allies.
As President of the Senate, it's my only job, of course, as Vice
President, is to serve as President of the Senate. Many people don't
realize when they wrote the Constitution, they created this post of
Vice President, but when they got through the Constitutional
Convention, down to the end of their work, they figured out that they
had not given the Vice President any job. He didn't have anything to
do. (Laughter.) So they made him the President of the Senate and gave
him the authority to preside over the Senate, cast tie-breaking votes.
And my predecessor, our first Vice President, John Adams also had floor
privileges. He was allowed to actually leave the chair, go down into
the well of the Senate, and address the issues of the day, participate
in the debate and so forth. And then he did a couple of times, and
they withdrew his floor privileges. (Laughter.) They've never been
restored. So I can't speak in the Senate, but I am allowed to vote on
those tie votes.
But most of all, it's given me the opportunity to work very closely
with your Oklahoma delegation here, with Don Nickles and Jim Inhofe.
And, of course, I've known both them for many years, from my years back
in the '80s when I served in the House, and during the first Bush
administration. It's truly one of the outstanding Senate delegations
in Washington.
Of course, I know Don is stepping down next year. That's a great
loss for all of us. We tried hard to persuade him to stay on, but if
anybody has earned a chance to return to private life and family and so
forth, Don is certainly it. He's given tremendous service to Oklahoma
for a quarter of a century, going back to his time in the legislature.
And he'll be sorely missed in Washington. All of us, of course, need
to work extra hard to elect another Oklahoma Republican to serve in the
United States Senate alongside Jim Inhofe. And I know you're going to
do that, as well.
Now, we're all here today on behalf of a terrific member of
Congress, John Sullivan. And I deeply appreciate the fact that you're
here, willing to sign on, on behalf of this effort. Of course, John
came to Washington a couple of years ago after the special election.
And I think your confidence in him has been extraordinarily well
placed.
Over the years I've gained some experience in judging members of
Congress. Of course, when I served in the House myself for 10 years, I
was the congressman from Wyoming. Wyoming only had one House seat. It
was a small delegation. (Laughter.) But it was quality. (Laughter.)
But when you come from a single-member state, you have to develop
allies and relationships with other states. California had 52 members
in their delegation -- Texas, New York, a lot of the other states had
many, many members. But I always had to go out and round up votes from
other states. I had to start out on a Wyoming issue with just one
vote. But you quickly became a judge of who you could trust and who
you could work with and who the outstanding members were that you
wanted on your side.
And John Sullivan is exactly that kind of member. He does a superb
job of working hard, of staying in close touch with the district, never
forgetting who elected him and how he got back there, but also always
thinking of the national interest and what needs to be done on behalf
of all Americans. He's exactly the kind of congressman that I was
proud to associate with during my years in the House, and that I'm
delighted to work now as the Vice President.
John is a respected member of the committees on science, on
government reform, and on transportation and infrastructure, and of
course, he's been a consistent voice for a strong economy and a secure
America. In the House, colleagues know him as a strong advocate for
northeastern Oklahoma, as a man of broad knowledge on all kinds of
issues from energy to economic development, as a businessman whose been
out there doing, as well as a legislator who knows who to reach across
the aisle to work in the spirit of bipartisanship. For all those
reasons, we need more people exactly like John Sullivan in Washington.
And he has certainly earned another term in the United States
Congress. (Applause.)
Just as John has built a fine record to run on next year, I think
there's another individual who has done that. His name is George W.
Bush, our President. (Applause.)
We're looking forward to next year's campaign. And I'm confident
that come November, the American people are going to reelect the
President for a job well done. We'll be proud during the campaign to
take our message to voters all across Oklahoma and across America.
When the President arrived in Washington three years ago, he was
determined to solve problems, instead of simply pass them on to future
generations. We were determined to seize new opportunities for reform
and to get beyond some of the old debates that had stood in the way of
progress.
Today, as we look ahead to next year's election, I think we've got
a pretty good record of accomplishment to show the American people. I
believe the nation can be confident of a better future, a stronger
economy, and greater security against the dangers of the new era we
live in because of the character and the leadership of our President.
In the weeks following the terrorist attacks on America, on 9/11,
people in every part of the country, regardless of party, took comfort
and pride in conduct and the character of our President. From that day
to this, he has led a relentless, steady, focused campaign against the
enemies who struck America and killed 3,000 of our citizens that
morning.
Not long after 9/11, one high-ranking al Qaeda official quote, said
that, "This is the beginning of the end for America." It's pretty
clear that that terrorist did not know us. It's pretty clear that the
terrorists who attacked us did not understand the strength and the
resilience of this country. And they, clearly, did not understand the
determination of our President.
We're now fighting the war against terror on many fronts.
Terrorists hide and strike within free societies, so we're freezing
their bank accounts, disrupting their plans, hunting them down one by
one, until they can no longer threaten America and other free peoples
around the world.
As we stand here today, many of al Qaeda's known leaders have been
captured or killed. Those still at large are living in fear, and their
fears are well founded -- because we're on their trail. In
Afghanistan, the Taliban regime brutalized an entire population and
harbored al Qaeda -- and that regime is no more. In Iraq, a ruthless
dictator cultivated weapons of mass destruction and the means to
deliver them, developed a relationship with al Qaeda, and provided
support to terrorists -- and his regime is no more.
Freedom still has enemies in Iraq. Those terrorists are targeting
the very success and freedom that we're providing to the Iraqi people.
But terror attacks on innocent civilians will not intimidate Americans,
and they will not intimidate the Iraqi people.
Iraq is now the central front in the war on terror. And we're
rolling back the terrorist threat at the very heart of its power. We
are aggressively striking the terrorists in Iraq, defeating them there,
so we do not face them in the streets of our own cities.
We're calling on other nations to help the Iraqis build a free
society, which will make all of us more secure. We're standing with
the Iraqi people as they assume more responsibilities for their own
security, and move toward self-government. These are not easy tasks,
yet they are absolutely essential. As the President has said many
times, and no one should ever doubt, we will finish what we have begun,
and we will win this essential -- in the victory in the war on terror.
In all they have done and continue to do, the men and women who
wear the uniform of the United States have performed with incredible
skill and courage. They've struck hard against forces of murder and
chaos, conducting heroic raids, countering attacks, seizing weapons,
capturing killers. American service members have faced hard duty, long
deployments, the loss of comrades in some of the most difficult parts
of the Earth. They are confronting danger every day to defend all of
us. As a former Secretary of Defense, I have never been more proud of
the men and women of the United States military. (Applause.)
These young Americans deserve our wholehearted support. They're
playing a classic role, one that they undertook after World War II,
when they brought help and hope to the people of Europe and Japan.
Now, in the Middle East and Central Asia, they are earning the trust of
the people they've liberated. One of the most important commitments
that President Bush made during the 2000 campaign was that the armed
forces would be given every resource they need, and the respect they
deserve. And working with John Sullivan and others like him, we've
kept our word to the United States military.
The long-term security of our nation, and of our friends and
allies, has been a principal concern of President Bush's
administration. And so has the economic well-being of our citizens.
By the time we took office, the economy was sliding into recession.
And to get it growing again, we've delivered significant tax relief for
the American people. We've done this because we believe that when
families and small businesses are hurting, the best way to help them is
to let them keep more of what they earn. After all, the money that we
spend in Washington is not the government's money -- it is the people's
money.
This administration has delivered the largest tax relief since
Ronald Reagan was in the White House, and we are beginning now to see
strong economic growth as a result. The figures for the third quarter
show the economy grew at an annual rate of 8.2 percent -- the fastest
pace in nearly 20 years. Business investment, manufacturing, housing
construction are all on the rise. The Bush tax cuts are working, and
your congressman, John Sullivan, helped make it all happen.
As you know, there are a few voices in the land who want us to roll
back the Bush tax cuts. Sometimes I hear these voices at night on the
evening news. (Laughter.) But in fact, the Bush tax cuts are exactly
what brought us out of recession. They're helping bring down
unemployment, and set the economy on a path to long-term economic
growth. The job growth of the past four months is expected to
continue. The unemployment rate is down again today, to 5.9 percent.
And the President and I will not be satisfied until every person who
wants to work can find a job.
On issue after issue, from national security, to economic growth
and trade, to improving public schools, the President has led the way
in making progress for the American people. One of the sure signs of
his leadership can be seen every day in the people that he's brought
into government. As many of you know, I've had the privilege of
serving in a number of different positions in public service, including
the White House Chief of Staff, member of Congress, Secretary of
Defense. Looking at the group now serving under President Bush, I can
tell you, this is one of the finest teams ever assembled by a President
of the United States.
All of us in this administration -- and our Republican allies on
Capitol Hill -- recognize that our job is not to rest on a strong
record, but rather to keep adding to that record.
Abroad, the fundamental interests of this nation require that we
oppose threats to our freedom and security wherever they gather. Yet
overcoming threats is only the beginning of America's
responsibilities. In the Middle East, we are encouraging free markets,
democracy, and tolerance -- because these are the ideas and the
aspirations that overcome violence, and turn societies to the pursuit
of peace. In that region and beyond, all who strive and sacrifice for
the cause of freedom will have a friend in the United States of
America.
Here at home, we have a full agenda, as well, and some pressing
business to complete. After many years of inaction, we're finally
delivering major reform in Medicare, and that's good news for nearly
half a million seniors who live in Oklahoma. On Monday morning,
President Bush will sign a new law that strengthens the Medicare system
and provides American seniors, for the first time, with prescription
drug coverage. Going forward, we must also improve our health care
system through liability reform. In Oklahoma and all across America,
doctors should be able to spend their time healing patients, not
fighting off frivolous lawsuits. (Applause.)
For the sake of more growth and new jobs, we also need a good
energy bill. John helped us pass comprehensive energy legislation in
the House last month, but there's still work to be done on the Senate
side, where a minority of senators filibustered the bill. And a good
energy plan is important to Oklahoma, as an energy-producing state with
more 100,000 people employed in that industry. We're going to stay
focused on this legislation because a steady supply of affordable
energy is vital to our economic future, and to our national security.
We must make the United States less dependent on foreign sources of
energy.
Also on Capitol Hill, it's time for the United States Senate to get
about the business of confirming President Bush's judicial nominees.
(Applause.) The President has put forward superb nominees to serve on
the federal bench -- talented, experienced men and women, who represent
the mainstream of American law and American values. Yet some of these
nominees have been denied an up-or-down vote for months, and even
years. Senate Democrats have taken to waging filibusters against
certain nominees who don't meet their litmus test. This means that
even though these nominees may have a majority of senators supporting
them, that is more than 50 votes, they can't get confirmed unless they
get a super majority of 60 votes. That's unfair to the nominees and an
abuse of the constitutional process. Every nominee deserves a prompt
up-or-down vote on the Senate floor. And I can't think of a better
reason why we need another Republican senator elected from Oklahoma.
(Applause.)
We've achieved a great deal over the last several years. But
there's still a great deal left to do in Washington. And around the
world, the nation has many serious responsibilities and challenges.
The campaign season will come in due course, and when it does,
President Bush and I will run hard and take nothing for granted. Like
John, we understand the key to victory is to do the work we've been
given, and to do it well. We intend to make good use of every day we
have the honor of serving the American people.
Long before I entered my current job, I had the good fortune to
work with other Presidents that I greatly admire. As a White House
staffer in the aftermath of Watergate, I saw Gerald Ford restore
confidence in government by the sheer decency and force of his
character. As a congressman during the decisive years of the Cold War,
I saw the conviction and the moral courage of Ronald Reagan.
(Applause.) And as a member of the Cabinet under former President
Bush, I saw the ideal of public service in its purest form and came to
know a leader of great honor and integrity. (Applause.) That's okay.
(Laughter.)
Along the way, I learned a few things about the presidency, and the
kind of person it takes to do that job well. It takes the finest
qualities of character: conviction, personal integrity, good judgment,
compassion, and courage in times of testing for the nation. And that,
ladies and gentlemen, is exactly the kind of man we have in the White
House today. (Applause.)
President Bush and I are both honored by your confidence in us, and
by your commitment to the cause we all share. We're honored to have so
many friends in Tulsa and across this great state. And we've very
grateful to the people of the first district for sending John Sullivan
to Washington. He's a steady leader in the Congress. He reflects
great credit on the great state of Oklahoma, and we look forward to
working with him for a good many years to come. Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
CONGRESSMAN SULLIVAN: On behalf of the entire state of Oklahoma,
I've got a gift for the Vice President. (Laughter and applause.)
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Maybe when I go into the Oval tomorrow for my
morning meeting, I'll wear this. (Laughter and applause.)
END 12:50 P.M. CST
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