Maurice Hinchey: “in the last several days, the Speaker of this House has launched an intemperate prejudicial attack on the President of…”

“in the last several days, the Speaker of this House has launched an intemperate prejudicial attack on the President of the United States, demeaning himself and the office he holds by prejudging issues that may, in fact, come before this House. One can only conclude by these intemperate actions that the Speaker's basic intention is to draw attention away from the failure, his failure and the failure of the Republican leadership to address important issues that are of deep concern to the American people. Yesterday, we learned that the Speaker personally made it impossible to reach a bipartisan agreement on a broad-based tobacco bill. He, in effect, told the chairman of the Committee on Commerce that he could no longer cooperate with Democrats to put together a bill that would make it difficult for children to become addicted to tobacco, demonstrating once again how deeply into the pockets of tobacco this Speaker actually is. It is a shameful circumstance and one that needs addressing. We need to get on to the business of this House.”