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And I have been campaigning for the past three months trying to get the Senate Judiciary Committee that has the oversight authority and responsibility to start its own public hearings.

Everything needs to be public. The legitimacy of the courts comes from the fact that they reason openly, on the record, based on facts.

We provided complete protection to witnesses - right of attorney, right of record, right to cross-examine, and open hearing if they desired. Only Mr. Lane asked for an open hearing.

If you were a public official, you had to be accountable, and you had to be reachable.

When conducted with proper preparation, and in a focused and professional manner, oversight of executive branch actions can reveal serious shortcomings by government officials and help prevent recurrence; the 'Waco hearings,' conducted over a two-week period in 1995, stand as an example of such an undertaking.

The American public has a right to know what's going on.

All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a say in how they are governed. That is a milestone we left a long time ago.

The DISCLOSE Act is a testament to the wisdom of the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United. The First Amendment sought to place political speech beyond the government's control, and we can be glad that it did.

If we want to truly regain the public's trust, we can provide greater accountability and transparency with a simple step. Let's start by communicating to our constituents about the votes we take.

The American public got to see for themselves every day, all day, how this trial progressed. There's a lot of value in the public being able to see how the system works.