Darrell Issa: “It is not easy for a freshman to get up and talk about a Member that I do not know very well. Although I was born in…”

“It is not easy for a freshman to get up and talk about a Member that I do not know very well. Although I was born in Ohio, I am not here because of some relationship to Ohio. I am a California representative. I was voted by, in my particular case, over 800,000 people I now represent, until we get reapportioned. All of my colleagues got here because of over 600,000 or more voters. They put us here, this body did not. Our governors did not put us here; a court did not put us here. We are a unique body. We get here by one and only one reason, and that is 1/435th of the country votes to put us here. I do not know the people of Youngstown all that well, but they put the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Traficant) here, and I take it as an extremely important and extremely solemn duty to decide to take the extraordinary measure of removing him. I must tell my colleagues that I am also not a lawyer, but I am going to have to decide, hopefully in the next month rather than the next hour, whether or not to, for the second time in modern history, I guess for the second time in history practically, to remove a Member. I do not have enough information.”