Jack Kingston

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I will move on. Here we have a situation where Dan Burton's big crime, even though he has broken no law, but he is being accused of disclosing doctored tapes. First of all, no tapes whatsoever were altered. These were not tapes that were eavesdropping, surreptitiously sneaked into the household of the Hubbells. This is where Webb Hubbell, convicted felon, sat in jail and talked with his wife when she came to visit him, and over their head was a sign that said, ``All conversations are recorded. If you want your lawyer, come get him.'' These tapes are public. They came from the prison. Webb Hubbell is a convicted felon. In those tapes, Ms. Hubbell makes reference to the fact that she is worried about losing her job in the Department of Interior if they do not cooperate with apparently the White House. In there Ms. Hubbell talks about the White House squeeze play. In there Mr. Hubbell talks about, ``I will have to roll over again for the White House.'' These are serious matters. Why did they make these statements? Yet not one Democrat member of the committee has the slightest bit of curiosity about it.

Mr. KINGSTON. I think that is a good point, Mr. Speaker. I will submit this for the record, because it is straight out of the editorial page, May 11, Roll Call Magazine.

Mr. KINGSTON. If the gentleman will yield, it is interesting you brought up the contrast of Howard Baker and the Republican minority during the Watergate scandal compared to John Glenn. You know, John Glenn, my elementary school hero shared by so many kids, how far he has fallen from those days, high in the stratosphere, to being a lowly politician. Here is a quote that when he was the ranking member of the Senate Oversight Committee on the Thompson committee, Fred Thompson asked how the investigators could get more information when so many people had fled the country? John Glenn's response was, ``That is their problem.''

Mr. KINGSTON. It is not my time. I was going to yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Barrett), but I will yield my time to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Hayworth).

Mr. KINGSTON. The clock does not lie.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman's time has expired.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, on that subject, let us say we have somebody who is a goat worshiper.

Mr. KINGSTON. But the reality is this has a long, long way to go. As far as the gentleman from Oklahoma has gone with it, he is only at the starting gate still.

Mr. KINGSTON. Does the gentleman have a similar piece of legislation being introduced and worked in the Senate?

Mr. KINGSTON. Now, should this pass the House, it has to get 60 votes in the Senate.

Mr. KINGSTON. And if people want to find out if their Representative is a co-sponsor, they can go to that Web page.

Mr. KINGSTON. But it would appear to me the gap between 152 and 290 is still a large one.

Mr. KINGSTON. And there are people who will support this but will not co-sponsor it.

Mr. KINGSTON. Now, the gentleman has 152 co-sponsors.

Mr. KINGSTON. That would not be the first time. The question, though, this is a constitutional amendment. Therefore, it has to pass this House by 290 votes.

Mr. KINGSTON. Let me ask the gentleman this. Some of the critics feel that right wing Christian extremists are pushing this. And I have seen literature that labels groups who advocate this amendment.

Mr. KINGSTON. Even in this Chamber, we cannot say everything that we sometimes want to.

Mr. KINGSTON. But should a child go to see the teacher and say, all right, I would like to say a prayer, my dad is in the hospital right now; the teacher says, that is fine, Johnny, but we are going to call roll, and we are going to go to our math class, and we are going to follow that with English and social studies and lunch, and then we are going to go home. There is no time. So what does Johnny do, say you are infringing on my religion? The teacher may say, no, you can pray, but we do not have time. The constitutional amendment does not require that I give you a set time. Now, Ms. Jones down the hall, it is okay with her to have 30 seconds out in the morning.

Mr. KINGSTON. Okay. So let us say under an order, a typical American schoolroom right now, the difference that this would make is that, at some point in the day, the students could ask to pray, be it at the homeroom, or would they have to go to a separate room and take the time off of recess or whatever, because it would appear to me there could be scheduling problems, something mundane and routine.

Mr. KINGSTON. But that would mean you could have prayer which is not student led. You could have teacher-led prayer.

Mr. KINGSTON. Now, I want to ask another question, though. You say in some of your frequently asked questions that the Religious Freedom Amendment does not permit teachers or any other agent of the government to proselytize or to dictate that any person must join in prayer or to prescribe what prayer should be said. Where is that wording in here? Then what would keep the teacher from praying?

Mr. KINGSTON. What year was this?

Mr. KINGSTON. If the IRS is cracking down on people posting things that are offensive to most people, then obviously, you cannot put up an IRS sign, because that is far more offensive than most of the other items that they are talking about.

Mr. KINGSTON. They are doing such a good job on tax simplification and tax clarity that they have enough time to worry about something that is offensive.

Mr. KINGSTON. This was the IRS?