Patricia Schroeder: “I am delighted to be able to take the floor and review some of the things that I think have made this day so confusing…”

“I am delighted to be able to take the floor and review some of the things that I think have made this day so confusing to a lot of us. I am a historian, as is the new Speaker, and the new Speaker wears that button with great pride. I always thought that historians were very, very proud about the fact that what we dealt with were facts. We try to deal as much in facts as possible, and I think today we all got a little confused as to what became factual, what became image. Were the image police working on the floor today? Were there new rules? Where were we going with all of this? I know I was troubled when I read about yesterday's press conference when a reporter had asked the Speaker when he charged taxpayers' money had funded a PBS viewer opinion poll; the reporter asked, 'Well, show us proof,' and he said, 'I don't have a clue, I don't have any proof.' Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues, 'What does that mean? Shouldn't you have to have facts if you make those kinds of allegations?'”