Louie Gohmert: “I appreciated so much my friend Mr. Scott for bringing up that oath. It does mean a lot--in my case, taking that oath to…”

“I appreciated so much my friend Mr. Scott for bringing up that oath. It does mean a lot--in my case, taking that oath to serve in the Army for 4 years, taking, basically, the same oath to be a prosecutor in Texas, to be a judge in Texas, to be a chief justice in Texas, and now to be in Congress. It means something. Protecting the Constitution means that, if we don't preserve the balance of power, then this little experiment in democracy--or ``a Republic, madam,'' as Benjamin Franklin referred to-- will be lost. I appreciated what my friend from Maryland said, and I wrote it down because it was profound: ``we gave up the opportunity to act responsibly.'' I would humbly submit, Madam Speaker, that that has been going on for the last 6 years. Now, some of it went on during the Bush administration as the President used executive orders and took powers that probably shouldn't have been his. In talking to people who have been in Congress over the last 35 years or so, they have told me that, whether it was Gerald Ford or Richard Nixon when Goldwater went down Pennsylvania Avenue, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, or George W. Bush, there was a willingness on both sides of the aisle to get in a car together and go down Pennsylvania Avenue and say, ``Mr. President, you have usurped far too much power. We can't let you destroy the Constitution any further.…”