William Bryan: “I am not unmindful, nor is anybody in this Chamber, nor anyone in America, that we are in the heat of a great…”

“I am not unmindful, nor is anybody in this Chamber, nor anyone in America, that we are in the heat of a great Presidential debate. That is as it should be. That is a quadrennial experience in America. But we ought not to allow that Presidential debate to divert the focus of our own energies on the Banking Committee and on every other committee in the Congress in which we have very serious public business to undertake. I must say that the proposal that has been advanced--that we extend these hearings in the Senate not to a time certain but until after the so-called McDougal trial is concluded--in my judgment is nothing more than an open-ended extension which I regret to say smacks of partisanship seeking some advantage, seeking to embarrass the President, seeking to develop headlines, and not in the advancement of our effort to ascertain the truth--that is going to occur through the aggressive investigation of Mr. Starr--but to seek some political gain at the President's expense.”