Henry Hyde

Mr. HYDE

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to U.S. Army Private First Class Shawn C. Edwards, of Bensenville, Illinois. PFC Edwards was killed on April 23, 2004 when his convoy hit a roadside bomb in Samarra, Iraq. He had been serving in Iraq since February. PFC Edwards was a junior in high school when he made the adult decision to enlist in the U.S. Army. He told his father he could use the discipline, and he didn't want his family worrying about paying for his education. He began his service after graduating from York Community High School in Elmhurst in 2002. He was assigned to the 121st Signal Battalion, Ist Infantry Division, based in Kitzingen, Germany. Like many of our soldiers, PFC Edwards had plans for the time when he would come back home. He was going to return to college. He loved computers and tinkering, and demonstrated his expertise in electronics during his brief Army service. At the time of his death, he was setting up cellular communication networks in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. PFC Edwards carried on a proud family tradition when he enlisted in the military. His father is a veteran of the Vietnam War, and his grandfather served in World War II. PFC Edwards was only a young man of 20 when he made the ultimate sacrifice in service to his country. Our deepest sympathies go to his beloved family--his mother Elizabeth, his father Glen, and his sister Robin--as well as to his other family and friends. The entire community joins in mourning Shawn's loss. We honor the memory of PFC Shawn C. Edwards and the dedication and bravery with which he served our nation and the people of Iraq.

Mr. HYDE

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pride to inform my colleagues that Jon Dudas, former counsel to the Speaker, and former key member of my staff when I was Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee has been nominated by the President to the crucial post of Under Secretary of Commerce. I include my testimony in support of his nomination before the Senate Judiciary Committee for the information of my colleagues. Statement of The Honorable Henry J. Hyde Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, It is a pleasure to be here today to support the President's excellent choice for the crucial position of Under Secretary of Commerce, Jon Dudas. I have known Jon for almost a decade. After he graduated from law school at the University of Chicago, he came to Capitol Hill and worked in my congressional office as a legislative counsel. When I first became Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jon moved over as counsel to the Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property which has jurisdiction over the complex issues of patent law. Shortly thereafter, I named him Staff Director and Deputy General Counsel of the full Judiciary Committee. During those extremely busy and trying years for the Congress and the Committee, I came to know Jon very well, and I became personally acquainted with his strong leadership, tremendous loyalty, unwavering integrity and the ability to accomplish his assigned mission under tremendous pressure. When I first got to Congress, I learned an important lesson. If you want something done, you talk to the Member, and then you go to the ``staffer who makes the Member look good.'' During his service on Capitol Hill, Jon was one of the people who made me look good. In his position on the Judiciary Committee staff, Jon helped me manage the most productive committee in the Congress--more than one out of five bills considered by the House during the 105th and 106th Congresses went through the Judiciary Committee. Our Conference relied upon him to help achieve some of their most important goals during that period. With mixed feelings, I encouraged Jon to leave the Committee staff when the Speaker asked him to serve as his chief floor manager and legal policy advisor to the House Leadership. Jon played a critical role in advancing legislation to support the war on terror. Jon left the Hill when our former colleague, Jim Rogan, was appointed to be Under Secretary of Commerce and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. As the Assistant Secretary immediately under Jim Rogan, Jon played an integral part in implementing the President's Management agenda and in developing the 21st Century Strategic Plan--a comprehensive map to move the Patent and Trademark Office from its crisis situation to one of improved quality, quicker issuance of patents and increased efficiency. His ability to relate and work well with others and his good relationships with Members of Congress will be critical in achieving the difficult task of passing the Administration's fee bill that will implement the strategic plan. Just as important, because he has been serving as Under Secretary Rogan's right hand for the last two years and currently as Acting Under Secretary, Jon will provide continuity at the Patent and Trademark Office. The issue of this government's position on patents is a critical one in this ever-expanding world of scientific progress. I can think of no one better qualified to lead the Patent and Trademark Office. I urge the Committee to confirm this fine public servant as Under Secretary of Commerce so that he may continue to serve the best interest of the American people. Thank you again for this opportunity to appear before you today.

Mr. HYDE

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call your attention to Hots Michels, one of Chicago's best liked and most enduring entertainers. During his 50-year musical career, Hots has played for three different Presidents and many famous people Including Zsa Zsa Gabor, Abbott and Costello and Bob Hope. In case you didn't know it, the ``piano bar'' began in Chicago, where people would gather around a piano and sing away their troubles to a wonderful guy like Hots. Hots started in the old Sherman House Hotel at Clark and Randolph in Chicago. It was the original piano bar across the street from City Hall where politicians, union leaders and the media gathered. More recently he has been playing at the Chicago Chop House for the last 18 years, entertaining the throngs of individuals visiting the ``Windy City.'' On May 2, the Chicago Sun-Times featured Hots Michels in an article entitled, `` `Piano Player to the Stars': Hots Michels.'' Today, I am pleased to share this article with my colleagues in recognition of Hots, a guy who still knows how to pack them in. ``Piano Player to the Stars'': Hots Michels Strangers in the night are the only people who tip piano player Hots Michels. He's got too many pals. ``I was never a tip guy, mainly because people knew me too well,'' Hots says. ``I'd be in business with them, how could I take a tip? And I wouldn't want to; it would have to be from a stranger.'' Hots has a fishbowl on his piano in the Chop House, just in case any strangers drop by. Hots Michels is the original Chicago piano bar guy. The gang at the bar in the Chicago Chop House busts his chops and calls him ``the pianist to the stars!'' He has tickled the ivories for the likes of Zsa Zsa Gabor, Abbott and Costello, Bob Hope, Don Rickles, Sidney Poitier, Nat King Cole and Wayne Newton. One night while plunking the 88s at the Sherman House, he saw a face peek through the curtains from the dining room. The face belonged to another piano player who had just retired and was on a book tour. Hots says, ``The maitre d' came over to me and said, `President Truman would like you to join him.' '' He's had pops with three different presidents (Truman, Reagan, Bush I) and said prayers with the Pope. He's been playing piano in saloons for more than 50 years. How old is he? ``That's an unpublished number.'' He's no teenager but he sure looks good for his age. Hots started out in Little Flower Parish near 79th and Ashland. How did he get the name ``Hots''? ``I have no idea,'' he says, ``It has nothing to do with music.'' Did your parents name you Hots? ``Hots Michels, yeah.'' Gotcha. His dad, Walt, was a musician and songwriter, and Hots must have it in his genes. ``I play by ear, I can't read music. I don't know what it was, but anything that had to do with a formal education, I just went south. I have no idea how I really got to play the piano, but hey, thank God.'' Chicago Chop House owner John Pontarelli says, ``He can probably play 2,000 songs.'' The piano bar was born in the old Sherman House Hotel at Clark and Randolph. Hots says, ``They had the College Inn, the Porterhouse Room and the Well of the Sea. We had strolling violins at the Porterhouse Room, and in between was a little lounge where people would sit and wait to be called to a table. Someone got the idea, just put a piano in there and entertain `em while they're in there. Then someone said, well let's build a bar around it. All by accident, it wasn't planned. They did, and it's hard to believe but people would wait in line to sit at the piano bar because it was so new.'' It's karaoke with class. The Sherman House was across the street from City Hall. Pols would wander over for a couple of carnables along with union leaders and media folk, and most of them became friends with Hots over the years. Along the way he was involved in a multitude of schemes. ``Piano was never enough for me. I was involved in other things all my life. I had a small loan business, used cars, Christmas trees, launched a new lipstick, bubble bath, radio stations in Alaska, Mill Run Playhouse, video games. I had a detective agency. We were in the slot machine business, drilled oil three times in my life, had a burial vault company in Melrose Park, and on and on and on.'' Hots and his friend Hal White raised championship hogs in their backyard in Beverly and entered them in an international livestock show. ``We took grand champion of the show.'' On the wall next to his piano is a picture of the two city slickers crossing the Rock Island Line tracks with their two prize pigs, Lightgreen and Coolbreeze. Hots used to wear a turban at the piano when he was doing his act, ``The Musical Wizard of Mental Telepathy.'' Folks would conceal the name of a song on a piece of paper and Hots would tear it up and play it for them on the piano. The gang at the Chop House says, ``Carnac stole his act!'' He's been playing from 5 to 8 p.m. every weekday at the Chop House for the last 18 years. The joint is drenched in Chicago history with thousands of photos of the toddling town's sinners and saints, including Sally Rand sitting nude on a horse, a gallery of gangsters and every mayor in the history of the city. Grab a stool at the piano bar and request a tune from Hots. If you feel like singing, he'll be your accompanist. I ask him what's the most requested song and he says, ``'As Time Goes By,' requested by the young and the old.'' It's still the same old story. If you're lucky, Joe Sullivan might stop by to do some crooning at the bar. Hots says, ``He owns Clark & Barlow Hardware, but Joe could have easily made it in show business. He brings down the house.'' I've watched Pete Nolan warble here with hand moves and phrasing that rival Sinatra's. It's not just the music that draws you to Hots' piano. There's a camaraderie among those half-dozen stools as we listen to him play his favorites. One night Charlie Carey and I were chillin' with Hots, and Charlie mentioned that he was on his way to Washington, D.C. Hots picked up the phone next to his piano, called his best friend, U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, and handed Charlie the phone. Lobbyists charge heavily for that kind of clout, but Hots was just putting two pals together. After a half century of playing piano in saloons and more than a few cockeyed business schemes, Hots tells me, ``I have no beefs.'' He's been around long enough to know that only suckers beef.

Mr. HYDE

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 561, I call up the resolution (H. Res. 557) relating to the liberation of the Iraqi people and the valiant service of the United States Armed Forces and Coalition forces, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), the distinguished majority leader.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert), the Speaker of the House.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, this is an important moment in our history. We are in the middle of a war the like of which has not been seen in recorded history. Everybody is a combatant, and the enemy works by night and works through cowardice. We do not see them. It is not like when Hitler marched through Europe with the blitzkrieg, where you could see the enemy. The enemy extends from New York City to Madrid to Indonesia. And if ever there was a time for this country, the United States of America, to be unified, as the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha) said earlier, it is now. Now, there are two aspects to this issue that we have here today. One is the procedure by which we got here, and that is controversial and has evoked some harsh words. And the other aspect, the one that I choose to dwell on, is the substance of the resolution. The resolution, it seems to me, is simple, straightforward and one that everybody can support. It does four things. It congratulates the Iraqi people on withstanding the torture, the brutality, and the oppression that Saddam Hussein has visited on that country for so long. It affirms that the United States and the world has been made safer with the removal of Saddam Hussein and his regime. And I understand there are some who doubt that and wish to contest that. I would suggest to them that they look at Libya and they consider that Libya has given up its pretenses to have weapons of mass destruction, its capacity to develop nuclear weapons, and is rejoining the community of nations without a shot being fired. And anyone who doubts that that is not a direct result of our intervention in Iraq, seems to me, is not a very good logician nor a student of history. The other two things the resolution does is commend the Iraqi people on the adoption of an interim constitution. This, Mr. Speaker, is a miracle. You have Sunnis, you have Shiites, you have Kurds who have been at each other's throats for a long, long time. You have them coming together in a period of 9 weeks reaching a constitutional document. Not perfect, but a giant leap forward from where they were. This is an immense contribution towards democratizing the volatile Middle East, and they deserve recognition. And, of course, this resolution commends the United States Armed Forces and the Coalition for their valor and their courage in the war in the Middle East. Now, those things, it seems to me, everybody can support. And regardless of our disagreements on process, regardless of our concerns about how we got here, I would ask, in the spirit of, dare I say, patriotism, sticking up for our country, never mind our ruffled feelings, justified or not, let us stand as one with our military people who are fighting this war, this strange, weird, deadly war, where all of us should be Americans, not Republicans and not Democrats. Mr. Speaker, the vote in Spain was a great victory for al Qaeda, but it was simply a battle, it was not the war. The war will be a long, long war; and the voices of appeasement are being heard in Europe, but there are other voices, some from the past, voices like Churchill, voices like de Gaulle and voices like Roosevelt that caution resistance, resistance to tyranny. I would ask that Members read the resolution. It is very simple, very straightforward; read it and then put your bruised feelings aside and support it. If we want to go into bruised feelings, both sides have ample cause, we certainly do, being called, and I say this in sorrow not anger, crooks and liars and having it suggested that the war was started by the President. Those kinds of ideas are not conducive to getting together and embracing each other in the unity that must prevail if we are to win. We do not dare lose this war. What can we do to help win it? I ask Members that, and I ask my friends on the other side of the aisle to give it heartfelt thought and support this resolution. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds. I would just like to comment on the use of the word ``imminent.'' I wonder when the aircraft smashed into the World Trade Center, what was imminent. That morning? The day before? See, when we are dealing with suicide bombers, ``imminence'' is a rather difficult term to apply to circumstances. Sometimes by the time one finds out it is imminent, they are dead. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Virginia (Mrs. Jo Ann Davis).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Harris). (Ms. HARRIS asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I was fascinated by the remarks of the last gentleman. We have been checking records of people who have strong views on this subject, and I find the gentleman has voted 11 times to cut the intelligence budget. That is pretty consistent, and I give him an A for consistency. He also voted against the supplemental to provide the wherewithal for the troops to be fully equipped. And so, as I say, the gentleman talks a very robust military, but he does not quite follow up with supporting funding for our intelligence.

Mr. HYDE. I yield to the gentleman from Ohio.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman said what is not in our resolution. I will tell the Members what is not in. The 11 votes he voted to cut funds for intelligence, his vote against the supplemental. And so to talk out of one side of his mouth for a vigorous military and that they should be supplied, and then to deny them the wherewithal to do it, it seems to me is standing on two stools. It is a great way to get a political hernia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Kelly).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 2 minutes to the learned gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 minutes of my time to the gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter), the chairman of the House Committee on Armed Services, and 30 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Goss), the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, for purposes of control.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence). (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Flake).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds. I think there is a little semantic difficulty on the words ``safe'' and ``safer.'' I would not say that Iraq is safe. I would not say crossing Pennsylvania Avenue in rush hour is safe. The question is, Is it safer with Mr. Saddam Hussein in a cell? Or is it less safe with him in one of his palaces plotting to amputate limbs from some of his people or to bury Kurds alive like he has done? The world is a safer place with him in a cell because Mohmmar Qaddafi watched that and went to school on that. He decided to put his cards down and give up his nuclear pretensions. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 4 minutes to the learned gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Royce).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds. I enjoyed listening to the last speaker tell us of his war exploits. I never tire of hearing them, and I find them quite fascinating. But I am bewildered. I do not quite understand why someone who wants to praise the military does not understand that getting rid of Saddam Hussein and trying to secure Iraq is a conquest by our military, an achievement, and that is why they are first in the four things this resolution does. And why he would want to detract from that accomplishment, that military achievement, is something that I am bewildered by.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, the last time I yielded, I did not get my time back.