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Saturday, June 18, 2005 10:31 p.m. EDT

Gingrich Seeks Durbin Censure

In a letter sent to United States senators on Saturday, June 18, 2005, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called on the Senate to censure Senator Richard Durbin for his speech comparing U.S. servicemen serving in Guantanamo Bay to those of the Nazi Gestapo, Soviet KGB, and Pol Pot’s killers in Cambodia.

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"Senator Richard Durbin has dishonored the United States and the entire U.S. Senate. Only by a vote to censure Senator Durbin for his conduct can the U.S. Senate restore its dignity and defend American honor," Gingrich wrote.

He added, "It’s one thing for one Senator to endanger young Americans and defame America; it would be the shame of the Senate if the other 99 Senators did not stand up to defend America and to defend the reputation of our young men and women in uniform."

Gingrich called Senator Durbin’s comparison "despicable."

"Nine million innocent human beings were murdered in Hitler’s death camps, nearly three million perished in the gulags under Stalin, and more than one and a half millions were slaughtered in the killing fields of Cambodia at the hand of Pol Pot. And while not a single terrorist has died in detention at Guantanamo, Durbin sees fit to liken our American service men and women to the terrifying murderers of three despotic evil regimes."

Gingrich continued, "This moral equivalence isn’t just utterly false; it endangers the lives of our young men and women in the military because it arms every radical Islamist with the official-record words of a Senate leader to justify their war of terror against civilized people everywhere."

Gingrich added that a censure would help "reaffirm a standard for healthy, rational debate."

"By voting for or against the censure, the rest of the members of the U.S. Senate can go on record and make clear how they judge Durbin’s characterization of American soldiers."

Gingrich continued, "It will also send a clear message to terrorists who will use the words of a Senate leader against us that the Senate stands in support of America and our military and against those who seek to destroy the free people of the United States."

Gingrich also wrote that a censure would be "justified" and that there is "historic precedent for censuring Senators whose words bring dishonor and disrepute on the Senate and impair its dignity; Senator Durbin’s words fit that precedent."

Gingrich concludes the letter by calling on the Senate to act. "In this case, expressing outrage is not enough. It is time for the Senate to act. Senator Durbin must be censured now."

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