Alan Simpson: “there is a reason why the groups do not wish this to get to the floor and to debate it like we are just doing. The…”

“there is a reason why the groups do not wish this to get to the floor and to debate it like we are just doing. The reason is the word ``anti-Semitism.'' I will not have any part of that, in humor or not. That is personally very offensive to me. This is not anti-Semitism. I know that my good friend was not indicating in any sense any activity on my part, and he was saying that in good humor. But I am saying that is what is underlying this tremendous pressure that gets this to this point because no other group in the world receives this special treatment. If it were the Soviet Union of 1989, I would not be here. In fact, I have sat, while my friend from New Jersey has gone forward, and I have visited in my office with people from the groups who press this. They say, ``Couldn't you just accept this, please, so we do not have to go through a debate?'' I said, ``What's wrong with going through a debate?'' ``Well, you know, it could get into things about anti-Semitism.'' ``Well,'' I said, ``if we are limited in our debate about things that go and find avenues and vents that are unknown, then we would not get anything done.'' It goes back to what I have said 3,000 times. You either pass or kill a bill on this floor with the use of emotion, fear, guilt, or racism. That is the only reason I stay in this issue, not because I am totally perverse and ornery. But this is not the Soviet Union of 1989. This is the former Soviet Union of 1994.”