John Hope Bryant: “Mr. Chairman, I just cannot resist observing that as the gentleman continues to characterize our efforts here in…”

“Mr. Chairman, I just cannot resist observing that as the gentleman continues to characterize our efforts here in opposing the Gekas amendment in favor of the Bryant amendment as some type of a conspiracy, that I have to repeat what I said yesterday, which was initially contradicted by the gentleman, and I think the gentleman has checked the Record and seen that it was true, that the ranking Republican Member of the Committee on the Judiciary, the gentleman from New York [Mr. Fish] voted against the Gekas amendment, and voted in a fashion exactly consistent with the amendment I am about to offer, in 1987, as did 14 of the leading Republican Members of the Senate just a few weeks ago when the Senate voted down the Gekas amendment and kept language like the Bryant amendment by a margin of 67 to 31. Mr. Chairman, I think we are pursuing a prudent course here that is constructive. It leaves the Attorney General in the position where she can prosecute the laws without any hindrances. It does not put Members of Congress on a pedestal, but treats us like everybody else.”