Charles Rangel: “I am really surprised that the eloquent chairman of the Committee on Rules with all of the power of words and influence…”

“I am really surprised that the eloquent chairman of the Committee on Rules with all of the power of words and influence he has, that after a seething attack on the majority, that he would come into the well and say, but it is all in the rules. What our leader is talking about is more important than the Medicare bill. She is talking about the civility in this House of Representatives. Every one of us here today are not here just because we are so bright and so intelligent. We are here because some group of Americans have thought that we would represent their interests. They were not talking about blacks and whites or Jews or gentiles or Asian Americans or Hispanics. They were talking about Representatives in the House of Representatives. And they invested in us the right to make judgments as to what would be in their best interest. How in the world can you come to this floor and take this privilege which has been given to us to protect, not for ourselves but for the next group that will inherit the seats that we are privileged to serve in, and to say when the Speaker of this great House of Representatives, here where we truly represent the people, it is not based on every district being entitled to something because it is a State, it means that they come together. They fight. They argue. And they elect.…”