Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, now, to my second point, the issue related to Mr. Santos. I voted ``present'' today. Let's look at what the vote count was. The vote count was 311 ``yeas,'' 114 ``nays,'' 2 ``present,'' and 8 persons not voting. I am proud of my vote. I am proud to say that I voted ``present.'' It is not unusual for me to stand alone. I know that it takes a certain type of courage to stand alone. I pray that I will continue to have that type of courage because I believe that the House has made a mistake today in going on record and expelling Mr. Santos from Congress. I believe it was a mistake because I believe that the process itself will now lend itself to whatever 290 persons believe to be a reason to expel a person, that becomes a reason for a person to be expelled. Whatever 290 persons can agree on, you can now expel a person. I don't think that that process is a fair and just process. Let me continue by saying this. Yes, the House had every right to do what it did. Yes, constitutionally, the House had the right to do what it did. Constitutionally, it did, yes. {time} 1200 Yes. So it is not about whether I differ with the Constitution or differ with whether the House had a right to do this. I believe that we have the right to do things, but I believe also that there are better ways to do things, and there are some ways that we should not do things.…”