Jack Kingston: “I find it a great irony and some goodness that I can get some time from my friend. I was sitting in my office and I did…”

“I find it a great irony and some goodness that I can get some time from my friend. I was sitting in my office and I did not know, frankly, that Muftiah was old enough to retire, take on another job, or leave the nest here, or whatever she is doing, but as somebody who has personally benefited from her expertise and wisdom, as I have had the honor to sit in the Chair, I can say we could not have laymen go up there and hold the gavel without somebody like Muftiah at our right arm telling us sometimes what to say and what not to say. I am sure she never would sit down when I had the gavel because she was nervous something would go awry. The other thing that is important, when school kids and visitors come to the House Chamber, I often point to the picture of George Washington and the fact that you can still see the sword painted out of his hand. I explain to school kids the reason the sword was painted out of his hand in his portrait in the House Chamber is that we philosophically believe that our debate here, our spirited debate, sometimes our acrimonious debate, sometimes our bitter debate, is still better than the alternative, and that alternative is civil war or civil disruption, as we see around the world.…”