committee produced a report that contained all of two sentences on how president bush maybe, maybe could have responded a little better to hurricane katrina. and when republicans reached that laughably partisan conclusion, democrats had the advantage of not having been dragged into it. they never signed on to that. and so, basically, they won a round. and everybody laughed off that report and it disappeared as the republicans' effort to whitewash their own party's failures. that's strategy number one, the boycott strategy. strategy number two, i like to think of as the elijah cummings strategy. this is the one where you decide to show up, knowing that you have no real power in the room, other than give the other side a chance to make themselves look terrible. and when it works, it works like this. >> ladies and gentlemen, seeking the truth is the obligation of this committee. i can see no point in going further. i have no expectation that miss learner will cooperate with this we and therefore, we -- >> chairman, chairman, i have a statement.