John Shimkus: “I thank my friend, Mr. Davis from Chicago, but I am a legislator and I believe that the big chair is the Speaker's…”

“I thank my friend, Mr. Davis from Chicago, but I am a legislator and I believe that the big chair is the Speaker's chair. So I am an article I guy, not an article II guy. But having said that, with living and working and sweating and being together for all these opportunities, there are some very important historical events that have occurred here and I said that when you came in. I am not sure what they will be, but here in Washington there is always something that happens that is unexpected. Like surviving the Page Plague I, where it was hard for us to find a page because you were all sick. And then we had at the second semester, mini-Page Plague which affected a good number of folks. I see my friend Jim Kolbe here, but maybe we can take some lessons here on bird flu and epidemics based upon studying the page class and how they survived the illnesses. You got to attend a State of the Union address, and probably it is historical in the fact that we had so many, four, joint sessions of Congress with leaders from around the world, just most recently the President of Latvia, but the President of Liberia, the Prime Minister of Italy and the Prime Minister of Israel. All very momentous occasions.…”