Louis Stokes: “It is probably the most painful experience that I have ever encountered during my tenure in the House. It is the…”

“It is probably the most painful experience that I have ever encountered during my tenure in the House. It is the toughest job and the worst job that any person in the House could be asked to do. So is service on that committee. I do not know of any Members who ever have sought to be on the ethics committee. But I do know that all of them, once assigned that responsibility on behalf of the House, have tried to carry out an institutional responsibility with great integrity. During the two times that I chaired the committee, I had the good fortune of having two of the finest men in the House serve as the ranking minority members. In one case it was the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. Spence], and in the other case it was Jim Hansen. Both of these men worked with me in order to do the difficult jobs we had been given without any partisanship whatsoever, and it is to their credit and the credit of the other Members that we were able to keep any partisanship out of any type of assignment ever given us.”