John Kerry: “it is time we really talked about what is really happening here. And it is time that we face reality with respect to…”

“it is time we really talked about what is really happening here. And it is time that we face reality with respect to this amendment. I am just astounded listening to the Senator from North Carolina and the Senator from Alabama suggest they know better than their own attorneys general, who are elected, after all, who are accountable to the people of their States, just as we are as Senators, and who suddenly, representing the Republican Party, are attacking people because they have made some money and they do not like the way they have made some money. This is an unprecedented situation as far as I know. The Senator from Utah, the distinguished chairman of the Judiciary Committee, could not have put it more strongly or directly. He asked the question, What is our party coming to if this is what we stand for? Now, I ask my colleagues just to read this amendment. This amendment says: No award of attorneys' fees under any action to which this Act applies shall be made * * * until * * * [they] have provided to the Congress a detailed time accounting with respect to the work performed. They want to turn the U.S. Congress into an accounting committee for attorneys, private attorneys who have contracted privately with the attorneys general of their States. But after that, if ever there was a violation of what I thought the Republican Party stood for, here it is.…”