Richard Gephardt: “Ideally we are able to put aside our partisan interests and consider the people's business, if not with a blank slate…”

“Ideally we are able to put aside our partisan interests and consider the people's business, if not with a blank slate, at least with an open mind. The Speaker of the House has an even greater duty. He not only represents his district and his party but he represents the integrity of the House of Representatives for all Members. This Monday the Speaker delivered a speech in which he accused unnamed presidential advisers of being unpatriotic, accused Members of the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight for voting for a cover-up, urged the President and unnamed members of our party to quit undermining the law in the United States, and declared that in the last 2 rac{1}{2} years we have lived through the most systematic, deliberate obstruction of justice, cover-up and effort to avoid the truth we have ever seen in American history. These remarks, which demean the office which he is privileged to hold, were repeated in the well of the House. The Speaker noted in the same speech that America is a Nation under the rule of law and that no person is above the law. I fully agree with his comments. But speeches are empty sentiments unless they are practiced through our public behavior. There is more to the rule of law than after-dinner rhetoric. The rule of law requires impartial and competent investigations. It assumes the Speaker will not prejudge the results of these investigations. It requires, if not charity towards all, at least an absence of malice.”