[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 133 (Tuesday, September 30, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H8167-H8168]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      MY, HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED

  (Mr. BOB SCHAFFER of Colorado asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BOB SCHAFFER of Colorado. Madam Speaker, my, how things have 
changed. George Washington, the Father of our Nation, was obsessed with 
the idea of establishing a national character. He believed in the 
marrow of his bones that the esteem and success of a nation derived 
above all from one thing and one thing only.
  It was not the strength of its army, the wealth of its resources, the 
level of taxation extracted from its citizens, nor was it the 
refinement of his laws. No, Washington believed that the esteem and 
success of a nation derived above all from the virtue of its people.
  To General Washington, the greatness of a nation and the greatness of 
its people lay in the moral character of individuals. He wrote that ``A 
good moral character is the first essential of man.''
  How different things are today in the city that bears the name of 
such a great American hero. We see daily a

[[Page H8168]]

new standard of character, a never-never land of legalistic gymnastics 
that carefully avoids the outright lie, but plumbs the depths of 
deception, deceit, and verbal prestidigitation.
  The campaign to deceive began with Medicare, blossomed in Filegate, 
and continues this very day with the corruption of American elections 
by foreign money. This new White House standard is a national disgrace.

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