Chuck Schumer: “we just had an election in Oregon, and we saw what happened. The Democrat won a seat that had been held by a Republican…”

“we just had an election in Oregon, and we saw what happened. The Democrat won a seat that had been held by a Republican for a very long period of time. And so today all the pundits and prognosticators have been asking what does that election mean. Why did it happen? Well, anyone who listened to the debate in the last 10 minutes, in the last half hour, on this floor knows exactly why it happened. It happened because a group of extremists have taken over this House. I would admit and say that in 1994, Republicans appeared to be the more centrist party. Democrats appeared to be too far over to the left, and Republicans won. And in a short span of a year, folks, you have ceded the center ground to us by doing all sorts of things that most people regard as lunatic, and probably at the top of the list is the idea of letting us default. But I would say one other thing about Oregon. Oregon is going to be the predecessor of what is going to happen in the 1996 elections. Oregon foretells the 1996 elections. Yes, the Republicans had, the Republicans had much more money. Many would argue he was more attractive, better looking, smoother and suaver, but you know what, the voters of Oregon said no more of this extremism, no more of sending people who are so far to the right that they are not where the American people are, to this body. And if anything shows how crazy things have become here, it is their idea that we should default.”