Political Quotes

“that is a legitimate question. Let me respond to that--the way we do in every such case. The standard operating procedure is, if we get something that even has the potential color of conflict, the majority and the minority get together. The standard procedure is they go back and investigate. Sometimes we call the FBI back in. ``Would you take a look at this? Is it specious? Is there anything to it? Is it real or not real?'' Staff may also call the person making the allegation. And the staff makes a judgment as to whether it is specious, whether it warrants further investigation, or whether or not they have enough information to make a recommendation to the committee. The third thing we may do is call the nominee. We call the nominee and say, ``OK, look. This was raised. Here is the deal. These are the facts as we know them. Explain yourself.'' That is what we did here. The explanation was given. The nominee wrote a letter to the committee and he was interviewed by staff. We read the briefs that were filed and the newspaper accounts. The staff concluded that Judge Dennis made the right decision, that he did nothing unethical.”