Martin Hoke: “Mr. Speaker, it is hard not to be somewhat amused by the shenanigans that are going on on the floor right now when we…”

“Mr. Speaker, it is hard not to be somewhat amused by the shenanigans that are going on on the floor right now when we are being told that we are completely shackling the rights of the minority by not allowing them to have the central reform that should be in this rules package; that is, the gift and lobby reform. It has to be pointed out that for 40 years Democrats have had the opportunity to pass this fundamental gift and lobby reform, and yet they have not been able to do it in a timely way that got through both the House and the Senate and was signed into law. For them now to claim that somehow, somehow this is preventing them from doing this when they know substantively we will get to this later, the question I have is why did they choose the gift and lobby reform as opposed to fundamental campaign finance reform, that is the elimination of special interest contributions, They know and I know that about $250,000 plus goes into every single incumbent's campaign on a cyclical basis. That is real influence that is being purchased by special interest groups, and yet there is only one group, one group in the entire Congress, not the House Republicans, not the Senate Democrats, not the Senate Republicans that do not want to limit that genuine purchasing of influence, and that group is the House Democrats.”