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Wayne Hays says to me: “Will you speak for me? because he's going to fight it. The other three, by the way, fought it and lost. Wayne Hays was going to fight it. And he put Jim Stanton from Ohio in charge of the 15 minutes that was allocated to him to defend himself, and they asked me: would you speak for two minutes? I said, “Sure.” I didn't know what I was going to say, but Wayne Hays wanted some liberal getting up and speaking for him. And I made what is considered to be my most brilliant speech and one that members to this very day will refer to and remember and talk about with a great sense of humor. They loved when I said, and I know exactly what I said, because it was a minute or two-minute speech.

I hadn't planned it, and I'm really quite good with instant comments. And so I got up when they called on me, walked to the well of the House in the Democratic caucus, and I said, “A lot of you are wondering what's a nice guy like Ed Koch doing down here in the well speaking for a guy like Wayne Hays?” The place roared in pandemonium. And I said, “I'll tell you why I'm doing it. Not that he's such a nice guy. In fact, he's a bully. But he is a supurb chairman, and I have worked on his committee and I know whereof I speak. And I'll tell you something else. He's not been so nice to me. I remember his getting up on this floor and referring to me as an emissary from Hanoi. Oh, yes,” I said, “he apologized ... a year later.”

Now, I must say to you -- and there were a couple of other