[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 152 (Thursday, November 12, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2333]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF THE DEMOCRATIC ALTERNATIVE PLAN FOR AN 
                          IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY

                                 ______
                                 

                    HON. JUANITA MILLENDER-McDONALD

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 12, 1998

  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, I come before you to ask a very 
important question: Why did we bring this resolution to this floor?
  I do not condone the President's behavior, but what I find truly 
abhorrent is the behavior of my Republican colleagues who have launched 
a partisan attack against the President.
  Certainly I believe that the President's conduct should be 
investigated and that the Congress has a constitutional responsibility 
to hold hearings looking into the allegations made by the Independent 
Counsel. But these hearings cannot be entered into lightly. It is a 
grave and serious matter that faces us. What we decide here today will 
have ramifications for generations to come. How we conduct ourselves 
will serve as a precedent for those who follow.
  We owe it to the American people to rise to the level of the 
challenge before us and to move forward with this investigation in a 
solemn and judicious fashion--not in the destructive partisan manner 
that we have seen so far.
  The investigation of the President has gone on far too long and must 
be brought to a swift conclusion--through a focused, limited and fair 
investigation--for the sake of the nation and in the interest of 
returning the attention of Congress back to the business of families 
and their children.
  The people of California's 37th Congressional District elected me to 
fight for better education, to fight for safer streets, to fight for 
the protection of Social Security. Instead I have had to spend the 
crucial last weeks of this Congress wading through more than 4,000 
pages of what amounts to little more than pornography. By bogging down 
real legislative business with salacious details of sex and scandal, my 
Republican colleagues have done nothing to make a real difference in 
the lives of America's working families.
  I call on my colleagues on the other side of the aisle today to 
change their do-nothing ways and finally make a real difference in 
Americans' lives by walking the high road on into the history books. 
Thus far this session, Republicans have turned their backs on our 
children, they have tried to rob money from our seniors and they have 
chipped away at a woman's right to choose. I urge my Republican 
colleagues to, at long last, do right by the American people and vote 
for a just investigative process--the limited, focused, fair proposal 
presented by my Democratic colleagues