David Obey: “first of all, let me apologize for keeping you here after 10 o'clock at night. Also, let me apologize to the staff. I do…”

“first of all, let me apologize for keeping you here after 10 o'clock at night. Also, let me apologize to the staff. I do not ordinarily talk to myself in an empty room, as the other two gentlemen have been doing for an hour. But there is something tonight that I feel I simply have to get off of my chest. Mr. Speaker, I intended to speak tonight to address some of the institutional failures that I believe are besetting this country as we deal with the matter involving the President. The Speaker's recently announced guidelines about what comments are permissible about the Starr report that we voted to release, and the President's conduct, prevent me from saying on the floor certain things that I wanted to say. In deference to those guidelines, I will honor them. But the whole text of what I intended to say will be available in my office. Mr. Speaker, Friday night after 2 hours of reading, after our vote on Friday, I began to wonder about the correctness of my vote earlier that day in light of my concerns about the appropriateness of what should be electronically directed into people's homes in this country.”