Political Quotes

“In response to my colleague--and I thank him for raising the issue--I do not claim great expertise in the product liability area. We have done some work, and I appreciate his comments, on the securities bill, the standards reform bill, and here on the Y2K area. So going back and revisiting this, while I do not recall the point the Senator raises, I do not question what he has said. I presume, in fact, that he is correct. I simply do not bring any personal recollection of how we crafted that. I know the administration cares about the Y2K issue. I negotiated with the White House on securities litigation, and there were some difficult issues to resolve. The Senator may recall that in that case the President vetoed the bill and the Congress overrode the veto. That is how that piece of legislation became law. On uniform standards, President Clinton and Vice President Gore were tremendously helpful and supportive, and I suspect they will be here as well. I want to be careful. I think it is fine to go back and use previous examples on punitive damages and on director and officer liability and on state of mind issues. However, there are differences in the application of law when you are dealing with bodily injury and other questions where product liability issues can come in, and even more differences when contract law comes into play. Contract law is basically what we are talking about here. Let me just say this, because the Senator has raised a very important point.…”