[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 11 (Thursday, January 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H333]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            DOUBLE STANDARD

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I do not believe that we can have two 
standards for speech, I do not believe that we can change the 
precedents and the rules of the House arbitrarily, and certainly in 
this Chamber we should not abridge the first amendment.

       I just want to comment that I am not sure that most of our 
     Members and most of the public can appreciate how serious a 
     violation we think the Speaker has engaged in and how deeply 
     we take this issue.
       There are, I think, two different areas we have to look at 
     to understand why we would charge this as a total betrayal of 
     trust. Whether it is a total betrayal of trust because of his 
     lack of judgment, or whether it is a total betrayal of trust 
     because of deliberate actions I do not think we know yet.

  Those are the words of now-Speaker Gingrich regarding Speaker Wright 
on the floor of the House. He went on further to call Speaker Wright a 
collaborator and a quizzling, and all of these words were spoken after 
the ruling quoted by the Chair of June 15, 1988.

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