Douglas L. Peterson: “a few days ago we were on this floor voting for numerous reforms of this House designed to bring more credibility to…”

“a few days ago we were on this floor voting for numerous reforms of this House designed to bring more credibility to this great institution. At the time I spoke about passing reforms that would ensure that special interests did not compromise the work of this body by restricting gifts and deals from lobbyists. I also said that the message the American people sent us on November 8 was that they wanted us to be personally accountable to them, not to special interests. Certainly they do not want us to enrich ourselves through our public service. Unfortunately, over the past several days we have learned that our own Speaker has met with special interests in such a way that suggests backroom dealing and with the appearance of using his position for personal enrichment. I am confident that the American people will find this unacceptable in the way we represent their interests. Worst of all, this kind of behavior discredits the people's House.”