I have known Speaker Dennis Hastert for many years and in all that time I have known him to be a good and honorable man. It is unfortunate that the Foley situation has caused many to lose sight of the children that have been hurt by Foley’s actions. However, the information in this matter needs to come forth so that pages are protected and we don’t have to travel this path again.

Therefore, I fully support the call for an independent investigation of this incident. I have supported such an independent investigation from early on in this matter. As the past week has proven, political considerations currently weigh more than legal or ethical ones. That’s wrong. We need to remove the politics from the equation and get back to the point where we are simply doing what is right.

This would be a strong step in that direction and one that can’t happen soon enough.

One of the goals of having Hewlett-Packard officials testify before the Energy and Commerce Committee last week was to shed light on these types of sleazy practices. Those hearings should serve as a warning to other corporations that this type of misbehavior will not be tolerated and these new indictments of top Hewlett-Packard officials will certainly reinforce that message.

During that hearing I was struck by Patricia Dunn's lack of culpability in her admission that she had authorized these operations. She refused to take personal responsibility for her actions before the U.S. House but now she will be forced to take responsibility for them before the courts in California.

Last weekend, the Senate completed its work before the election recess after focusing for a month on national security legislation. I was pleased by what we accomplished, but there is still more we must do to keep America safe.

Passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 represents a victory for America and a failure for al-Qa'ida, allowing us to interrogate and prosecute enemy captives like 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. These individuals possess vital information about the inner workings of terrorist networks, and our ability to extract that knowledge without exposing our intelligence capabilities has already prevented numerous attacks in the U.S. and abroad. Now that we've established appropriate legal proceedings with the force of law, we will be able to bringing terrorist detainees to justice.

We also approved legislation last week funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, strengthening our border defenses, enhancing security at our nation's ports and chemical plants, and revamping our nation's disaster response. In the face of a determined enemy, we must have the right priorities to keep Americans safe from attack, and the Republican Congress is meeting that challenge.

During this Congress, Democrats touted a security message of "tough and smart" polices for fighting terrorism, but their contradictory strategies for the precipitous withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq are weak and wrong. Democrats fought to kill the Patriot Act, supported revealing vital national intelligence to terrorists, delayed the appointment of key officials to prosecute the war on terror, and advocated shutting down both the terrorism surveillance and terrorism financial tracking programs keeping America safe.  While I do not question anyone's patriotism, I question the judgment of those who would tie our hands in the face of an enemy bent on our destruction.

The American people will have a choice to make about whether we should give the President the tools necessary to fight and win the war on terror or abandon the mission and tie our hands - leaving behind a terror haven in Iraq and conceding victory to al-Qa'ida. I look forward to that debate.

Economic issues still have a big impact on elections and recent news has been good. We have got 18 quarters of growth, unemployment is down to 4.6 percent, gas prices are down, and the stock market is doing well. I think that is going to help the President’s numbers and it will certainly help Republicans.

The other driving issue that everyone is going to want to talk about is security -- border security, where immigration is concerned, and of course the situation in Iraq. So candidates just need to go home and talk about the work we have done that has affected national security, that has affected the economy and I think the voters are going to respond.

This week, my campaign began running a comparative ad focusing on my opponent's vote as a state senator to give himself lifetime health insurance at taxpayer expense. This bill – which thankfully was vetoed – would have given legislators serving over 10 years a lifetime health insurance package in which the state pays 75% of the premium. Other state employees have to work 20 years before receiving the same benefits!

My opponent is now arguing that the benefit wouldn't have applied to him, splitting hairs and trying to confuse voters about what the correct interpretation of the bill is. But he has a record of helping himself at the expense of others. In 1996, he CO-SPONSORED a bill that prohibited legislators from receiving state retirement benefits… except for himself (H.B. 15).

I stand by my ad and I have written legal opinions that verify the claims. My opponent has made it clear that he would rather help himself than everyday working Louisianians.

Due to Louisiana's system of elections, statewide and local elections were just completed last Saturday. In those elections Republican candidates received more than 60% of the vote in my Congressional district and that combined with the fact that we have seen a steady decline in Charlie Melancon's poll numbers, even though he has been on TV and we have not, shows that the voters realize we need a real conservative representing this district.

With the state elections over the voters are now beginning to focus squarely on this race and the issues that are critical to my district. We are now on TV talking about those critical issues.

I am running for Congress because we must fully restore and protect our coast in south Louisiana. This is critical to protecting jobs and lives along Louisiana's coast.

Both David Vitter and Bobby Jindal have endorsed my campaign and I am looking forward to working with them to protect our coast here in Louisiana.

We must fully recover from both hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I will go to Washington to put our recovery on the fast track and get it finished because our best days are ahead of us, not behind us.

I will not do what the current Congressman did. I will not cast my first vote for ultra liberal Nancy Pelosi to be Speaker of the House. Voters know they can count on that. I will fight for our south Louisiana, traditional conservative values.

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As a father and a grandfather, protecting the young people who come to Washington to work for the Congress as Pages is my highest priority. I urge anyone who has information that they believe will help to call the Page Tip Hotline number: 1-866-348-0481.

When abhorrent I-mail messages from Foley to a Page were revealed last week, the Speaker of the House rightfully and immediately demanded his resignation and requested investigations by the House Ethics Committee and federal and state law enforcement authorities.

It was a mistake not to inform and consult with all of the Members of the Page Board concerning inappropriate e-mail messages from Foley to a Page.

This week a former Page contacted my office to ask me to make sure the Page Program continues because it 'provided an unparalleled education that taught me confidence, responsibility and integrity.'

As a scientist and an engineer, I know how important it is that we make sure all of the investigations are thorough. We need to find out where, when and how the Congress failed to protect the Pages who are entrusted to us by their parents. Individuals have to be held responsible for their actions. Pages are teenagers in high school when they leave their homes and come to Washington, DC to work for the Congress. We owe it to every Page and to their parents to make sure they are protected and safe.

The findings of the GAO are troublesome. Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries should feel secure that their personal health information is kept private. Agency officials ought to do whatever it takes to strengthen the program, and ensure that all beneficiaries are protected.

We were this close to passing a key postal reform bill before Congress adjourned last Friday. It's not a perfect bill, from my viewpoint. But it is a good starting point. And the main reason we didn't pass it – because some members said they had not had a chance to review it – is easily fixable by the time Congress reconvenes in mid-November. The Senate passed its version of the bill in February. The House passed a postal reform bill in July 2005. We've yet to appoint negotiators to work out the differences in the bills. But from where I stand, enough of the interests involved – mailers, post office employees, government officials and others – want to see progress this time that I'm optimistic something will happen this year.

We opened our millionth new post office in 2005, but mailing volume declined. And USPS' business model continues to be based on the economic conditions of the 1970s, before email, Fed-Ex or 28-seconds-per-page fax machines existed. Our choice now is continued rate increases as far as the eye can see – which David Walker, head of the Government Accountability Office, rightfully calls a "death spiral," – or reform that moves the postal service toward a new way of doing business.

To be sure, hangups remain. Most concern rules for postal rate increases and workers compensation policies. But the momentum is there. I support getting something done this year, and so does Henry Waxman, ranking member of the Government Reform Committee that I chair and our colleagues in the Senate. Don't write us off just yet.