Colorado’s Democratic congressional delegation vowed today to clamp down on President George W. Bush, work for the withdrawal of the United States from Iraq and improve conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital.
“It’s good to be in the majority and good to be in the Senate where we can put a lock on George Bush,” U.S. Senator Ken Salazar said to the Colorado Democratic Party meeting at the Adams Mark Hotel in Denver.
U.S Representative Mark Udall said that while Democrats are attempting to find ways out of Iraq, they are making sure that troops who serve there are taken care of. Udall singled out problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as a national embarrassment that will be corrected.
A Washington Post series exposed squalid living conditions for some outpatient soldiers at Walter Reed and bureaucratic problems that prevented them from getting the care they needed.
“What is happening at Walter Reed Hospital is unconscionable and we are going to take care of that,” Udall said.
Congressman John Salazar said: “We have…moved forward toward a new agenda that holds this administration accountable for all of the misdeeds it has done. We want to turn the country back to the Iraqis and bring our troops home as quickly as possible.”
Diane DeGette, who represents Denver in Congress, told the audience that “it is fun to be a Democrat in Washington right now. We accomplished more in our first 100 hours than the Republicans did in the last 10 years.”
Ed Perlmutter, who was elected to Congress last November, told the gathering he was elated to be in Washington.
“We changed the way the state is being run, we are going to change the way the nation is going to be run,” Perlmutter said.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
