James A. Leach: “I wish to express concern about the breakdown of comity that has occurred on a personal and procedural level in the…”

“I wish to express concern about the breakdown of comity that has occurred on a personal and procedural level in the House Banking Committee. On a personal level, unfortunate adjectives have been used; on a procedural level, unprecedented tactics have been employed. I don't wish to dwell on the personal, except to stress my high regard for the chairman of the Banking Committee and to suggest that, as the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr once observed, the temper and integrity of the political debate is more important in our kind of democracy than the outcome of any issue. Motivational aspersions are no substitute for full disclosure; indignation no substitute for pursuit of truth. Members of the majority may be speaking the truth when they indicate they have no evidence of a link between the failure of an Arkansas S&L and Whitewater and that they know of no improprieties at issue. But it should be understood that not speaking an untruth is not the same as describing a truthful situation, particularly if there has been no serious effort to pursue the truth. Constitutionally it is the duty of Congress to oversee breaches of law or public ethics in the executive branch.”