Political Quotes

“I thank my friend from Maryland. Madam Speaker, the distinguished manager on the other side of this bill says you are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts, in taking to task my friend from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch) in his reading of this bill. And I've got the bill in front of me. It says that ``at least 30 days' advance written notice stating specific reasons for the proposed action''--that is to say, the removal or suspension of an employee--``unless there's a reasonable cause to believe the employee has committed a crime or the agency determines, as prescribed in regulation, that the employee's conduct with respect to an action covered by the subchapters proposed is flagrant and such employee intends to engage in such contact,'' and then you can be removed without that notice. So Mr. Lynch was right: facts are stubborn things. If we really wanted to understand the motivation behind the legislation in front of us, it is a cynical political ploy before this Congress goes out on recess to allow one whole party and its Members to go home and avoid discussing the tough issues of the day and make the Federal employee the bogeyman. That Federal employee, whoever he or she is, vaguely abuses you, and you need to be protected against them.…”