[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3945]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     QUESTION OF PERSONAL PRIVILEGE

  Mr. TANNER. I rise to a point of personal privilege, Mr. Speaker.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair has been made aware of a valid 
basis for the gentleman's point of personal privilege.
  The gentleman from Tennessee is recognized for 1 hour.
  Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I consider this a sad day for our 
institution here when a Member comes to the floor and, by name, calls 
other Members to task for an unsubstantiated, untrue, fabricated 
allegation made in a blog somewhere and stands behind the fact that it 
has been reported that such and such occurred.
  Now, the primary reason my wife and I decided not to seek reelection 
is because we have four grandchildren in Tennessee that we don't see 
enough of and are not a part of their lives as we want to be. And any 
suggestion that there is some sort of NATO job in Brussels, Belgium, is 
beyond the pale. I, and Mr. Gordon as well, I think, are rightly 
indignant about this reckless, scurrilous, I think, indiscretion.
  Let me just say this. Emotions are high, but we can disagree on 
public policy matters agreeably. And to take an unsubstantiated, 
untrue, total fabrication and to repeat it on this floor, in my 
judgment, is an affront to this institution. It is too late to take the 
words down I'm told by the Parliamentarian, but let me just say this: 
When we get to the point as a society, when we--some of us--are unable 
to extend to one who may disagree with us on a matter of public policy 
the same purity of motive and the same intellectual honesty we claim 
for ourselves, we are going down the wrong road.

                              {time}  1400

  I didn't pay any attention to this. It is a total fabrication. I have 
talked to nobody. I wouldn't get on a plane and go to Brussels to live 
if they offered it to me. I say again, this is a complete fabrication 
by, and I think I know the political leanings of this blog. But to take 
that and then bring it down here to the floor is an affront to 
everything civil that we are supposed to stand for in the United States 
of America.
  Mr. Speaker, I am not going to belabor the point, but I can tell you 
this. I have been in public office over half my life. That is another 
reason we decided we wanted to do something else. And I don't remember 
a time when the people who know me best would countenance someone 
saying something like this about me. I don't know what I am going to 
do. I can't take the words down. But this is something that I think the 
institution ought to think carefully about and certainly I think the 
leadership of the Republican Conference ought to take seriously, as 
well as the Democratic leadership, because this institution is bigger 
and better than either political party that resides here right now.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

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