As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted 14 years ago...

As Miss Golightly was saying, before she was so rudely interrupted...

:When did I say that, Senator?

:When did I say that?

If I seem unduly clear to you, you must have misunderstood what I said. — Speaking to a Senate Committee in 1987, as quoted in the Guardian Weekly, November 4, 2005.

In my temperance speeches, I have frequently been interrupted, and sometimes interrogated by opponents. I always take things coolly, let them have their say, and endeavor to give them a “Roland for an Oliver.

...and then President Robbins began to speak. After two sentences one realized once more that President Robbins was an extraordinary speaker, a speaker of a — one says an almost extinct school, but how does one say the opposite? a not-yet-evolved school? He did something so logical that it is impossibe that no one else should have thought of it, yet no one has. President Robbins crooned his speeches. His voice not only took you into his confidence, it laid a fire for you and put your slippers by it and then went into the other room to get into something more comfortable. It was a Compromising voice.

There was a time when that statement, from a president to a House Speaker, would be enough. Those days are long in the rearview mirror.

In 1976 a legislator made a point of telling me women didn't belong in the legislature. I couldn't believe it.

LUNGREN: Mr. Speaker, I ask that the gentleman's words be taken down once more.

When Sir Winton Turnbull [who represented a large rural seat], a slow and sometimes stumbling speaker, was raving and ranting on the adjournment and shouted: "I am a Count–ry member". I interjected "I remember". Sir Winton could not understand why, for the first time in all the years he had been speaking in the House, there was instant and loud applause from both sides.

When I called the Right Hon. Member for Plymouth, Devonport (Dr. Owen) a pompous sod, Mr. Speaker said to me, 'You had better withdraw that'. I said I would withdraw 'pompous', but said, Mr. Speaker 'That's not the word I'm looking for.' There was laughter in the House and everyone thought that I had hit the nail on the head. I thought that that was a real parliamentary triumph, but Mr. Speaker thought differently. He said, 'Off you go,' and I did not get a chance to reply.

Dan LUNGREN: Mr. Speaker, I ask that the gentleman's words be taken down.

I heard the quotation read in a summary of the speech. I thought the words sounded familiar and suddenly it dawned on me that they were out of my little book.