Henry Hyde

Well, because they are zeroing in on abortion. Somehow abortion is the singular issue that raises their temperature. They do not get excited about violence on a picket line if it is a labor dispute, or if it is antinuclear people, or if it…

I presume everybody that raises their arm and takes an oath to defend the Constitution understands that part of that Constitution provides for equal protection of the law. Does that not have a nice ring to it? Equal protection of the law…

I agree with the gentleman from Wisconsin completely. It is ironic that in a labor dispute in front of a coal mine in West Virginia it is worth one's life to try to cross that picket line. There have been people shot. I have the clippings…

The gentleman keeps characterizing it as the broadest possible, but really and truly, the public interest may well be different from a personal, financial, or political conflict.

Why did the gentleman not add it, then, instead of substituting it, because many of us think ``in the public interest'' is a different standard and one could have a political conflict, a personal conflict, a financial conflict, but not…

I do not want to give the Attorney General more authority. I want to give her specific evidence rather than just information. I want it from a credible source, not somebody off the wall. I think that helps everybody. But the gentleman…

I am trying to elevate the threshold that triggers this whole complicated operation. If the gentleman is satisfied to have it based merely on allegations that somebody may make, then the gentleman is welcome. Because it is his party that…

But I want to change that to say not mere information but specific evidence, real evidence--not rumors, not assertions but specific evidence from a credible source.

I am trying to make this a workable provision. Under the law that we are about to reauthorize, the preliminary investigation threshold question was too low. I want to raise that threshold, not lower it. I do not want political manipulation…

I am just trying to make it mean something, and I just do not think anything other than removal means a great deal. But I accede to the gentleman's argument.

If I can say to my friend I agree. But nothing happened, and these egregious breaches occurred, and the gentleman was not prosecuted. I cannot see the Government, the Justice Department prosecuting an independent counsel. I can see a…