Stephanie Herseth Sandlin: “I thank the gentleman. Along this same line, I would like to point out that all of us here completely support law…”

“I thank the gentleman. Along this same line, I would like to point out that all of us here completely support law enforcement, the Texas Rangers, the Department of Public Safety, our police; but they are acting under the direction of a misguided and a wrong-headed speaker of the House in Texas, Tom Craddick, in conjunction with the majority leader here, the two Toms, the Tom Toms, and they are beating drums, sending these folks out. And our Department of Public Safety folks, they have little choice of what to do. But let me bring out a couple of other things that have happened. El Paso Police entered the home of Representative Joe Pickett where his 17-year-old daughter was at home alone, and his wife, who was a block away, quickly returned to the house. Representative Joe Menendez's wife found her car vandalized, parked right in front of the governor's mansion. A senior staff member, and this is particularly troublesome to those of us who protect the Constitution, a senior staff member of Representative Elliott Naishtat's office was told it was a felony to withhold information on the whereabouts of that legislator, and when asked what law was broken, the staff member was shown a copy of the House rules. Police searched Representative Patrick Rose's car, which was left at a friend's house hours after the lawmakers were found in Ardmore, Oklahoma. The friends said law enforcement had staked out the house where the car was parked prior to the search.”