Louie Gohmert: “This is personal to me. I have dedicated so much of my adult life to the Constitution of the United States. If you go…”

“This is personal to me. I have dedicated so much of my adult life to the Constitution of the United States. If you go back to 1884--it has been cited for about 80 or 100 years even--the Select Committee back in 1884 was taking up the issue of a Member of Congress being expelled. The committee said that because the conduct was committed during an earlier Congress: It must be said that with practical uniformity the precedents in such cases are to the effect that the House will not expel a Member for reprehensible action prior to the election of a Member, not even for conviction of an offense. That has been so frequently decided in the House that it is no longer a matter of dispute. And, yes, that was expelling from the House, but you are wanting to expel a Member from being a full Member, as she was elected to do. Now, James Madison--hopefully, that name rings a bell--said if the legislature could regulate those--talking about qualifications--which in this case would mean you have to meet our qualifications for what you say before you are a Member of Congress or you don't come in. He said if you could regulate those qualifications, ``it can by degrees subvert the Constitution. A Republic may be converted into an aristocracy or oligarchy as well by limiting the number capable of being elected.'' Qualifications founded on artificial distinctions may be devised by the stronger party in order to keep out partisans of a weaker party. This is so dangerous.…”