Political Quotes

“I want to make clear one thing: There is no Member of this body that has greater affection or respect for the distinguished chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary or for the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Oxley], my good friend. They are great men, great Americans, and dear friends of mine. I express to them my great respect. They are regrettably, however, very much wrong on their interpretation of this legislation. All this does is treat foreign manufacturers, foreign corporations, foreign workers, the same way we treat U.S. corporations, U.S. manufacturers, and U.S. workers. That is all. That is all this does. This is a simple, long-arm statute in the motion to instruct, something which my colleagues have seen time after time. And anytime my distinguished friend, the chairman of the committee, cracks a law book to look at a service statute, he will find this kind of language relative to American corporations. That is all we want to do, is to apply it to American corporations and to foreigners. I can understand there is a certain reluctance on the other side of the aisle on this matter. This town is full of lobbyists working for foreign corporations. Their single most important purpose today is to get this language out. Why? Because it confers an enormous economic advantage on foreign corporations, to know that they can hide abroad after they have manufactured shoddy or dangerous goods or provided services which have hurt Americans.”