Zoe Lofgren: “I do not believe we should continue the authority granted the managers by the lame duck 105th Congress. I do not believe…”

“I do not believe we should continue the authority granted the managers by the lame duck 105th Congress. I do not believe we should approve managers or any of the expenditures they have requested, and I will tell Members why. Since we voted in the lame duck Congress on December 19, I have been listening to my constituents, the people who live in my district, in the supermarkets, in the malls, on the street. People are very disturbed by what the House of Representatives has done. I have had citizens break down into tears talking to me about our Constitution and what they think we have done to our Constitution. I have never before seen feelings this intense among regular people about a political issue. I think we ought to listen to what the people are saying. They understand at a very basic level what Ben Franklin told us: Impeachment is the alternative to assassination. Impeachment is to prevent damage so severe to our constitutional form of government that we dare not wait until the next election. The people of this country have decided, for the most part, that what has been presented to us does not meet that constitutional test. And yet we are moving forward against the Constitution and against their sound advice. And I think we have finally today an opportunity to undo the wrong that we have done to our country. If impeachment becomes just another tool for partisan Congresses, our American system of government will change.”