Stephanie Herseth Sandlin: “I would respond to my good friend's questions, and certainly the gentlewoman from Houston, Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is an…”

“I would respond to my good friend's questions, and certainly the gentlewoman from Houston, Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is an attorney and someone who respects our Constitution and legal process completely. In response to the questions raised by my good friend, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee), certainly we are all concerned about the abuse of process and the abuse and use of Federal assets for a purely political purpose, as has been acknowledged and has been reported in the press. Closely akin to that are these issues that she has rightly brought up about our concern about the abuse of the use of law enforcement officers, whom we all respect, for undue political influence. Again, we are not criticizing the officers. We feel like we have the finest Department of Public Safety and deputy sheriffs and sheriffs and police and law enforcement officers in the country. They merely follow their orders. But let us look at some of these very serious things that have happened. Some I alluded to briefly in my opening remarks. Let us see exactly what we are talking about, the use of the power of the State to intimidate citizens of this country.”