House Endorses Resolution Allowing Bush to Use Force Against Iraq
BLITZER: Welcome back. President Bush got some good news from Capitol Hill today. The House overwhelmingly passed a strong measure of support for the president's Iraq policy and the Senate is getting ready to follow suit. Our Congressional Correspondent, Kate Snow, is standing by with details -- Kate.</s>KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, a vote of support for the president to be sure. All but six Republicans in the House, along with 81 of the Democrats, voted to endorse this resolution authorizing the president to use force against Iraq. Throughout the day, members went to the floor of the House, many of them, most of them supportive of this resolution, railing against Saddam Hussein. As one Republican leader put it at one point, he said he has a wicked litany of crimes. One key endorsement, of course, coming from the Democratic Leader in the House Dick Gephardt who stood, you will remember, last week shoulder-to-shoulder with the president at the White House. He told members they should vote their consciences but he was very clear about how he would vote.</s>REP. DICK GEPHARDT (D-MO), MINORITY LEADER: September 11 was the ultimate wakeup call. We must now do everything in our power to prevent further terrorist attacks and ensure that an attack with a weapon of mass destruction can not happen.</s>SNOW: Obviously, Dick Gephardt voting for this resolution but other Democrats parting company with him including his own number two, the number two Democrat in the House. She argued that actually if you force against Iraq it could detract from the war on terrorism.</s>REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY WHIP: I rise in opposition to the resolution on national security grounds. The clear and present danger that our country faces is terrorism. I say flat out that unilateral use of force without first exhausting every diplomatic remedy and other remedies and making a case to the American people will be harmful to our war on terrorism.</s>SNOW: In the end the final tally 296 votes for the resolution, 133 against. Within that vote, though, 120 plus Democrats voting against this resolution, Wolf, so quite a few members expressing their discontent with the resolution but overwhelmingly it did pass and we do expect that to happen in the Senate as well -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Especially now, Kate, that Tom Daschle, the Democratic Leader, the Majority Leader in the Senate jumped on the president's bandwagon, but the head counting that I can tell in the Senate looks it's pretty much 50/50 among the Democrats. Half will go along with the president, half won't.</s>SNOW: Yes, there was a telling vote earlier today, Wolf, as you know, a procedural vote but it broke out 75 for and 25 against and we expect that that will be very close to what happens in the end in the Senate, but about 75 or roughly most of the Republicans, all but one probably, and about half of the Democrats will go along with the president in the U.S. Senate.</s>BLITZER: Kate Snow doing our work on Capitol Hill thanks for that report. It didn't take very long for the president to come out and express satisfaction on what's going on. He went over and spoke to reporters. Our John King is over at the White House and he'll tell us all about it -- John.</s>JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And, Wolf, the president spoke to reporters briefly after placing a telephone call to the House Speaker Dennis Hastert and the House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt, the president thanking them for their work. Yes, the White House would have liked it if a majority of Democrats in the House had supported this resolution, but the president coming into the Roosevelt Room to declare victory here, thanking the House of Representatives for standing with him and sending a message.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The House of Representatives has spoken clearly to the world and to the United Nations Security Council. The gathering threat of Iraq must be confronted fully and finally. Today's vote also sends a clear message to the Iraqi regime. It must disarm and comply with all existing U.N. resolutions or it will be forced to comply.</s>KING: A more than two-to-one margin for the president in the House, the White House expecting perhaps close to a three-to-one margin in the Senate vote that comes. By this time tomorrow, the president should have both chambers of Congress on record, authorizing him to use force against Iraq, look Wolf to see the president at this time tomorrow asking the United Nations to act as well, saying America is speaking with one voice. It is time for the Security Council to pass a tough new resolution or the president will lead a coalition outside of the United Nations but privately U.S. officials continue to tell us the diplomacy at the United Nations going well. The president hopes for U.N. action perhaps, and they say they might be a bit optimistic here, but perhaps by the end of next week.</s>BLITZER: So, John, are they thinking that these strong votes in the Senate and the House will convince the French and the Russians, for example, to go along with the U.S. version of a new Security Council resolution?</s>KING: They certainly think it helps in the diplomacy with the French and the Russians to make clear that the president is on very firm political footing here in the United States, domestic political footing. The concerns of the Russians and the French are outside of the issues being debated on the floor of the House of Representatives and on the floor of the Senate. But they do think it helps the president when he can go to the United Nations, and especially those key members of the Security Council, France and Russia, and say I have the support of the Congress. I will do this with the United Nations support or without the United Nations support. If you want to have any influence in the outcome, you should join us now.</s>BLITZER: John King at the White House thanks very much. And here's your chance to weigh in on this story. Our web question of the day is this: Do you agree with the House of Representatives vote authorizing President Bush to go to war against Iraq if necessary? We'll have the results later in this program. Go to my web page cnn.com/wolf. That's where you can vote. While you're there, send me your comments. I'll try to read some of them on the air each day at the end of this program. That's also, of course, where you can read my daily online column, cnn.com/wolf. Stepped up security in New York City and now evidence that top al Qaeda leaders are still alive and that sparks concern for many Americans worldwide, a closer look at some unfinished business in the war on terror. And, a super smallpox virus that could wipe out thousands is it really possible to protect the nation? We'll talk to one expert who has some serious doubts, but first today's news quiz. Smallpox was first used as a weapon during what war; Civil War, French and Indian Wars, World War I, Vietnam, the answer coming up.