Footnote to the preceding

One of the exceptions, by which I mean someone who ranks as at least "pretty good" on a number of issues, not just one or two, is William Delahunt (D-MA). I mention him because in looking for something else - signers of John Conyers' letter regarding voting irregularities in Ohio, to be specific - I discovered that he had organized a series of floor debates in the House on the Iraq war. They weren't really debates - there rarely was a comment from the pro-war contingent - but more in the nature of an extension of remarks with a few members participating.

Still, is was a way to keep prodding colleagues on issues related to the war and they do make interesting reading (if only to discover that some members of Congress actually did call the invasion of Iraq "illegal" and a violation of international law) while at the same time demonstrating the limits of permissible dissent: For example, they go out of their way to note that they did, they really did, support the war in Afghanistan.

His website lists links for 33 of these "debates" from July 8, 2003 to October 4, 2004. Whether they stopped or continued after that and just have been put on the website yet, I don't know.