Cord Byrd: “one definition given for the word ``ethics'' by the Random House Dictionary is--and I quote--``The branch of philosophy…”

“one definition given for the word ``ethics'' by the Random House Dictionary is--and I quote--``The branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.'' Members of this body who are called to service on the Ethics Committee are asked to make judgments quite unlike the judgments required by service on any other committee of the Senate. These individuals are called upon to grapple not only with public policy and legal and constitutional questions, but also with the deeper philosophical questions which have confronted the human race since Adam and Eve found themselves tempted in the Garden--namely ``the rightness and wrongness of certain actions'' by their own colleagues. There is no more daunting task than this. To be asked to sit in judgment of another's actions and motives is, in one sense, an honor, but it is also an humbling experience for those who are so honored to sit in judgment. And with that charge must come the certain inner realization that no one among us is without fault, that none of us is free from errors in judgment, weakness, and at times failings of character. Such task is made all the more difficult in a body such as this, where politics too easily intrudes, and where friendships developed over long years can cloud one's objectivity.”