Ethics in government has always been important to me.
– Chris Bell
Fair play should be a minimal expectation, and the ethics truce prevented Congress from meeting even that low standard.
– Chris Bell
I don't pretend to be perfect; I've made mistakes just like everybody else. When I have, I've owned up to the mistakes and moved forward.
– Chris Bell
I filed the ethics complaint against Tom DeLay not because I'm a Democrat and he's a Republican or even because he drew me out of my congressional seat but because he engaged in corruption to further his plans to disenfranchise voters in Texas.
– Chris Bell
I guess what bothers me so much about what I now see going on in both Washington and in Texas is an effort to keep people from finding out about the mistakes of lawmakers and then when they're uncovered, an effort to fool people and pretend there was nothing wrong.
– Chris Bell
Packing the Ethics Committee with DeLay loyalists further immunizes the Republican congressional leadership not just from the Democrats but also from democracy.
– Chris Bell
Texas has a lot of challenges, but if I choose to run I will talk about opening democracy to mainstream Texans and not just to a closed circle of entrenched ideologues.
– Chris Bell
The American people do not begrudge anyone his or her power until they start abusing it.
– Chris Bell
The American people expect public servants to be able to police themselves. But instead of designing a system to enforce ethical conduct, Tom Delay and his cohorts have implemented a self protection system. Obviously, it wasn't good for democracy.
– Chris Bell
The DeLay story struck a nerve with people all across the United States because Tom DeLay put a face to what Walt Whitman called the never-ending audacity of elected persons. Suddenly, they could see corruption up close.
– Chris Bell
I think that people need to have the courage of their convictions and not be trying to fool people into thinking that they've changed overnight.