Mike Conaway: “Mr. Speaker, over the next 3 or 4 days, a partisan tone will be exhibited in these Chambers, harsh rhetoric will be…”

“Mr. Speaker, over the next 3 or 4 days, a partisan tone will be exhibited in these Chambers, harsh rhetoric will be exchanged on both sides, some of it intentional, some of it in the heat of the moment, some of it out of simple frustration with not being able to convince ourselves of issues that are going on, but nevertheless, partisanship that is communicated back to America and America's despair that we will ever get past this partisanship. Is there some way for us to listen to you and you listen to me and let us thoughtfully consider our positions and then make those compromises that have to be made in order to deal with the issues that face this country? It is not brand new. Two hundred twenty-one years ago, Benjamin Franklin observed the same partisanship, the same ugly tone going back and forth and came upon a solution that he communicated to President Washington in a letter. And I would like to read some of that letter into the Record tonight, because that solution I think would stand us in good stead as well.”