Paul Coverdell: “I would like to read an editorial that appeared in the Boston Globe on Tuesday, July 23. It relates to his remarks. It…”

“I would like to read an editorial that appeared in the Boston Globe on Tuesday, July 23. It relates to his remarks. It quotes Speaker Gingrich in December of 1994. He said on a television show: I had a senior law enforcement official tell me that, in his judgment, up to a quarter of the White House staff, when they first came in, had used drugs in the last 4 or 5 years. He said: Now, that's very serious. I'm not making any allegation about any individual person, but it's very clear that they had huge problems. It goes on. This editorial says: Then the sky fell in. ``We cannot do business here with a Speaker of the House who is going to engage in these kinds of unfounded allegations,'' fumed Panetta. He lashed Gingrich for behaving like an out-of-control talk show host, for making an absolutely false accusation, for trafficking in smear and innuendo. George Stephanopoulos has labeled Gingrich ``irresponsible.'' Hillary Clinton said, ``So unfair.'' Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers called them ``reckless charges.'' McCarthyism was alluded to. That was the beginning of the demonization of the Speaker. Let me ask this question of the Senator from Arizona. Don't you think these people owe him an apology?”