Truth must be the bedrock of our Judicial system - Rob Portman (R-Ohio)

20 or so years ago, Rob Portman, then a Republican Member of the House of Representatives, now Ohio's junior senator declared that "truth must be the bedrock of our judicial system."

Then Representative Fred Upton, Republican from Michigan asked "Obstruction of Justice... What kind of message do we send to America, if we set a lower standard for the highest public official in this land?

South Dakota's John Thune declared on the House floor, that "lying to the American people is a betrayal of trust."

These statements were about the conduct of Bill Clinton. They had caught him lying in personal affairs that mattered largely to his wife and family and to Monica Lewinski.

Those same claims made today condemn a man who has betrayed the American people by weakening institutions established years ago -- by both Democrats and Republicans -- that have been the bedrock of our safety nets for citizens and protections for the air we breathe and water we drink.

The melodrama that has played out since the election in November 2016 has been besought with the intentional weakening of ALL of the institutions of the American federal government. Doing so is the formula for weakened people who would then cry out for authoritarian strong men to rescue the country.

We cannot allow that path to be taken any further by the Trump administration.

Congress must act. And as the advertisement at the top of this page points out, Republicans in Congress and the Senate are key to whether the presider-in-chief will be held to account and only allowed to operate according to law.

First steps have been deployed, in the form of subpoenas issued by key committee chairs in the House. Testimony must be taken in Congress to fill in the blanks left on the Mueller roadmap.

In the summer, a consensus list of Articles of Impeachment must be drafted, approved by the House and sent to the Senate for the trial.

Madam Speaker, time is wasting. Let's get this show on the road.