[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 156 (Saturday, November 8, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H10353]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 CAN PUBLIC OFFICIALS BEHAVING IN UNETHICAL MANNER BE TRUSTED WITH NEW 
                                  LAW?

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, when was the last time you heard the argument 
that changing the law or passing a new law will make people who break 
the law honest? Well, yesterday, if you count what we hear in this 
Chamber. The fact is the DNC, friends of the White House, and close 
aides in this administration have been caught red-handed doing things 
that they know are illegal: Taking foreign money, laundering money, 
laundering union money, raising money on Government property, shaking 
down Indian tribes for money, raising money at Buddhist temples, 
covering for political operatives who have fled from this country, 
selling the Commerce Department trade missions, selling access to the 
White House and on and on. All these things are wrong, they are 
illegal, and they are dishonest.
  My suspicion is that the same people who have been caught behaving in 
an unethical, illegal, and dishonest manner are not going to suddenly 
become public officials who can be trusted with a new law. What do you 
think?

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