WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, accused Democrats Tuesday of trying to manipulate the U.S. electorate by alleging a draft was in the offing.
"For months now," DeLay said on the House floor during debate on a bill to reinstate the military draft -- which the House rejected by a wide margin -- "the American people have been subjected to, and had their intelligence insulted by, a manipulative, dishonest, and willful campaign of misinformation.
"This campaign, which started as a whisper but has since been given voice by the leading Democrats in the country today, asserts without any evidence whatsoever that there is a secret Republican plan to reinstitute the military draft," DeLay said.
The legislation was offered in the House by a Democrat, U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel of New York. DeLay said the House only took up the legislation "as a practical exercise to expose a fraud."
A number or prominent Democrats have alleged in recent weeks that the level of troops needed to secure a peace in Iraq require that the U.S. military draft be reinstated.
