Jim Baird: “reclaiming my time, the legislation that I put forward, actually it would obviate, not necessarily override. I really…”

“reclaiming my time, the legislation that I put forward, actually it would obviate, not necessarily override. I really want to underscore that point. The chairman has repeatedly, really since day one of this, I think, misrepresented this. He misrepresented it in his opening comments. He said the question before us, in essence, is whether you will have an elected Congress or an appointed aristocracy. The true question is, will you have any Congress or not? Not my bill, not the bill of the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lofgren), not the bill of the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher), not the bill of Senator Cornyn, not any of the bills put forward would in fact ban elections, as the chairman repeatedly says. It is deeply frustrating to me to have a matter of this importance be misrepresented. No one disputes, and I firmly agree with you, that the mechanism to replace House Members should be direct election, ideally, and we should have them as promptly as possible. But if we are so concerned about an aristocracy and appointment not responsive to the people, are you not equally concerned that a party mechanism for selecting a candidate implies in itself some degree of potential beholding to those who appoint it? Is the gentlewoman concerned about that at all?”