Political Quotes

“hypocrisy. According to the dictionary, hypocrisy is defined as a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not. Mr. Speaker, I think hypocrisy is a good description of the recent statement of the Texas Speaker of the House, Tom Craddick. Americans have watched with interest over the last several days where 52 courageous Democratic legislators left the Texas Legislature, broke a quorum, and went to Ardmore, Oklahoma, in order to allow Texas citizens to have a voice in shaping their new congressional districts for the next decade. They were the ones that stopped a secret plan of the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay) and Mr. Craddick that very few people in Texas had seen; that would have eventually destroyed communities of interest, distorted communities of interest across our State. I think these 52 Democrats are heroes. But Mr. Craddick, who did not like that walkout by those 52 legislators, called them, in effect, chickens, along with his other Republican colleagues. Whoops. Turns out that the Waco Tribune Herald, in my hometown in Texas, did a little research. Mr. Craddick forgot to tell the Texas people about this. It turns out in 1971, as a State House member, Mr. Craddick was part of a group called the Dirty 30 that did exactly what these members have done this week: He walked out of the Texas House of Representatives to express a protest over issues. Hypocrisy.…”