Porter Goss: “Mr. Speaker, what a difference 7 months makes as well. Last August this House spent countless hours in an effort to pass…”

“Mr. Speaker, what a difference 7 months makes as well. Last August this House spent countless hours in an effort to pass a crime bill conference report that I do not think anybody was enthusiastic about. After keeping Members in town for an extra week and a half of sweet persuasion, as I think Speaker Foley used to call it--some others of us would call it arm-twisting--the Democratic leadership was able to eke out a very small majority to pass out the rule and the bill. I had the privilege of managing the crime bill rules for the minority last August, and two things about that debate really stand out in my mind. The speech by Minority Leader Bob Michel preceding the original vote on the crime bill, I think, can now be seen as the turning point in 40 years of congressional history and, in some ways, the start of the 104th Congress. An energized Republican minority at that time joined by dissatisfied Democrats defeated the rule, actually defeated the rule, signalling the beginning of the end, I think, for the old order.”