Louie Gohmert: “in the entire realm of human history there exists periods of time when evil people bent on destroying good, wholesome…”

“in the entire realm of human history there exists periods of time when evil people bent on destroying good, wholesome, wonderful ways of life get enough power to try to do that and to create chaos and to literally try to send us into a dark age. It happens where books are burned and people live in squalor and fear, and it has happened where al Qaeda has gotten a stronghold. We cannot let that happen here. Now, as a former judge and appellate judge, chief justice, I am very sensitive to the issues of due process, but we are in a war. Going back to the Civil War when Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus, it is in the Constitution, ``The privilege of writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.'' He felt it did. We have not suspended writs of habeas corpus, even though we are in a war for our very existence. Now, there has been oversight. There will be oversight, because many of us are deeply concerned about our safety and about our liberties. So when the minority whip says, and he says he chooses his words carefully, and he says that this represents a craven, and I know I may look stupid, but I know what ``craven'' means, he says this represents a craven failure of our oversight responsibilities, then it tells me there might be a craven failure of his recognizing the oversight that we have conducted. I have been there. There have been 11 hearings and 35 witnesses.…”