Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to respond to Marlene, and Rodger, I appreciate your comments. Obviously we're going to get to the question right away and obviously your perspective will carry the day, but I do want to get something on the record, because I am disappointed.
Rodger, on one hand you say that's the spirit in which you don't try to presuppose anything. Well, quite frankly, Marlene came out and said, look, you guys are the bad guys and you obstructed this. Again, I won't go over everything that precipitated those problems we had last year, but quite clearly we had a position that we did not think the motion they were trying to pass on the in-and-out scandal was fair. We said we'd go along with it as long as you involved all parties. Of course we believed, and still believe, quite frankly--I'll be quite honest--that it was politically motivated. So I'm disappointed when you say it's only one side that was at fault there. I think in any situation there are always two sides to every story.
Quite frankly, yes, I've never denied that I filibustered to prevent that investigation from happening at this committee, because I didn't think the manner in which the motion was presented was appropriate. Now that situation is not even a concern of this committee any more. That's gone to the ethics committee. They're going to deal with it. So I don't think using that as an example of why you don't have any trust on the government side.... I just don't understand why, on one hand, you said that you don't believe the nice, flowery, eloquent words we use. Well, I could say the same thing from our side. You say you want to cooperate, yet in the next breath you say, we'd like to cooperate, except we can't because we don't trust members of the government. But let's not get into an argument about that.
I just want to get on the record saying that I made this motion only because I felt it was a matter of fairness. If you want to have a quorum, well, let's have at least one representative from both sides of the table. Clearly that's not the position of the opposition. We're going to have a vote on it, and they'll get their way. But to suggest, before we even get into proceedings, that there is no trust because there are two members of this committee who were on last year's committee when we went through that whole song and dance on the in-and-out thing I think is a very poor way to start the proceedings here.
With that, I conclude my comments. I would ask you to call the question, unless there are any other interventions.