SEN. DURENBERGER: Mr. President, it is clear in the now more than 13,000 telephone calls that my office has received in the past week that the process we're witnessing here has grabbed and held the hearts and minds of every American household and every American workplace.
Calls coming into my office, Mr. President are also telling graphic and personal stories of sexual harassment thousands of Minnesotans have seen or experienced in the workplace. Literally hundreds of callers have felt the need to tell their own stories, many dredged out of distant memories and many laden with guilt and anger at not being told at the time.
I was reminded also last night by a fellow Minnesotan that the charges we've heard in this matter follow an entire summer in my state of brutal murders, kidnappings and cases of physical abuse and criminal conduct directed by men against women and against children, against Millicent Johnson, Margaret Markeys (sp), Geraldine Steinbuck (sp) and her two daughters Jessica and Ashley, Karen Strufort (sp), Jacob Wetterling, who's still missing from my home town after two years.
Mr. President, there is no way I can personally understand and appreciate that feeling of anger but it's real and it's justified and it must motivate each and every one of us to commit ourselves to using this incredible experience to drive our own future actions, to effectively deal with violence against women and children and deal with sexual harassment in the workplace, including the workplace represented by the United States Senate.
This body has a unique role to play in the democracy which we cannot fulfill, as has been demonstrated in the past week, if the people don't trust us. The American people know we have difficult problems to solve and they understand that, but they cannot tolerate hypocrisy.
That this Congress would pass a series of laws on civil rights, worker safety, and yes, sexual harassment and then exempt itself is hypocrisy, pure and simple. Our colleague Senator Grassley has tried to show us the way for years on this, and now we finally understand what he's talking about. It's time to get our house in order, now.
Others including my colleague from Kansas have dealt with the weight to be placed on the weekend's event. Mr. President, I will vote for Clarence Thomas because the substance of what I know about him is more compelling than the single character charge I've heard made against him.
Those who've been acquainted with him and worked with him for decades, including many women co-workers, say he is a man of character, determination and courage, and the hearings certainly bolstered that impression. His mentor is our colleague Jack Danforth. The strength and the character of that relationship over the last 12 years has been exemplary and when put to the ultimate test that relationship has been remarkable.
So I come, Mr. President, to the same judgment today that I did when I met Clarence Thomas face to face, that he is a person America could be proud of.
SENATE PRESIDENT: Time has expired.
SEN. DURENBERGER: Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the balance of my statement be included in the record, though undelivered.
SENATE PRESIDENT: Without objection, so ordered.