Posted on 09/03/2004 6:30:24 AM PDT by Stoat
"My people elected me and I don't think you should take their representative away. . . . Vote your conscience. Nothing personal." — Traficant, closing the debate on his expulsion before the whole House
"Am I different? Yeah. Deep down, you know you want to wear wider bottoms; you're just not secure enough. . . . Do I do my hair with a Weed Whacker? I admit." — Traficant on his clothing and hair style. The remark elicited muted laughter from the House during otherwise ominous proceedings.
"I want you to disregard all the opposing counsel has said. I think they're delusionary. I think they've had something funny for lunch in their meal, I think they should be handcuffed, chained to a fence and flogged, and all of their hearsay evidence should be thrown the hell out. And if they lie again, I'm going to go over there and kick them in the crotch. Thank you very much." — Traficant's closing statement to the ethics panel.
"Are all those volumes your evidence? Well, you know what you can do with it, don't you?" — Traficant to the committee lawyers Paul Lewis and Kenneth Kellner upon entering the hearing room and seeing large three-ring binders, boxes and charts leaning up against a table.
"I wanted to have Playboy bunnies come on at night to meet with me. I wanted to be promiscuous with them." — Traficant to ethics subcommittee on why he kept a boat docked in the Potomac. Traficant was convicted of selling the boat to a businessman at an inflated price in return for favors.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
You might enjoy these one minute speeches.
http://www.traficant.com/1997speecharchive.htm#heading
one of my favorites that seems quite appropriate is the "Can't defend america with styrofoam" speech.
I have to admit it... Ohio seems to be the home of the "out there" politician. Traficant, Kuncinich, and Springer's trying to get back into the act. It's not bad enough we're being punished with Taft and Voinivich.
On top of that... the Browns *still* suck, and Butch Davis is a moron.
Is it any wonder sometimes I seem a bit grouchy?!
And it would be about as successful as Traficant was.
James Traficant was a common, ordinary, on-the-take politician who was too dumb to cover his tracks.
Traficant may be a nut, but he's a nut who is right on target. In one speech (1997 or so) he names Osama Bin Laden as the man who would one day bring a big attack on America, and complains that the president (clinton) was too busy to do anything about it.
He's the man who called for treason charges to be filed against the Clintons and Reno.
Read later.
Thanks. I love his one-minute speeches and would be very interested in his thoughts on kerry. In my opinion, I think he was one of the better politicians. At least he told it like it was.
Even scum is sometimes right. But that does not make it less scummy.
bttt
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