Bill Bennett: “I have heard the arguments, and I agree with most of them. I simply want to put it all in perspective. Let us remember…”

“I have heard the arguments, and I agree with most of them. I simply want to put it all in perspective. Let us remember that the Senate Ethics Committee, under the man who is currently the assistant majority leader, the majority whip, Senator McConnell, censured the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, a member of Senator McConnell's own party. The Senate Ethics Committee is not a namby-pamby, rollover, protect-the-party kind of institution. Let us remember that the current Democratic leader, the Senator from Nevada, was on the Ethics Committee when it censured a member of his own party with sufficient strength to cause that Member to recognize that he could not possibly seek reelection. There would be those who would say: Oh, Senator Reid will protect the Democrat. Senator Reid will see to it that the decision of the Justice Department, which said he had not violated a law, would be sufficient and would give him appropriate political cover. Senator Reid did not do that. Instead, the Ethics Committee came out with a statement so strong that the Senator in question withdrew himself from the election. Again, the Senator from Kentucky, when he was chairman of the Ethics Committee, came out with statements so strong that the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee--in some people's view, the most significant committee assignment anyone could have in this body--was forced to resign.…”