Political Quotes

“let us look at what is really going on here today. The Democrats are trying to pull a fast one. They want to rush a campaign finance bill, and that will help kind of cloud over a few of the things that the gentleman from California [Mr. Dreier] did not get a chance to mention here, key figures in this scandal who have fled the country. We cannot talk to them. We cannot talk to them about their activities. Charlie Trie gave $640,000 in suspicious checks; he has fled the country, we cannot serve a subpoena on him. Pauline Kanchanalak gave $235,000 in foreign funds to the DNC that had to be returned; she has fled the country so we cannot talk to her. Relatives of the Riady family, the Lippo bank, gave $450,000 to the DNC that had to be returned because it was not earned in the United States; they are no longer in the country. This is the real scandal. We can look at the Congress. But as far as rushing a bill today there is so much work to do here we are not going to be able to rush through this process and set a time frame of May or June. We ought to comprehensively look at campaign finance; sure we should. It should have been looked at the last 12 years by the U.S. Congress. But let us not try to rush through a debate on campaign finance reform legislation before we have all the facts. That is important. That is what we are looking for is all the facts. And let me just say, Mr. Speaker, that they are right. We support campaign finance reform.”