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Record, the republican senator roy ashburn is drawing criticism from gay rights groups. he was arrested last week on a dui charge and reports surfaced that he had been spotted at a gay club. the father of four wept on ken radio and said this. >> i am gay, so i -- those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long. but i am gay. but that it is something that is personal. i don't believe i felt with my heart that it, you know, being gay did not affect, wouldn't affect how i do my job. >> reporter: now ashburn addressed the voting record and says it reflects the wishes of the peop...

The pedal and it kind of felt like it moved on its own. that is the only way i can describe it. it was taking over harder than i was. >> reporter: you didn't try to put it in neutral? >> no, i was holding onto the steering wheel with both hands because 94 miles an hour in a toyota prius is very fast. >> reporter: why didn't you turn the car off? >> because it was not safe. i didn't know if i hit the button if the steering wheel would lock or the wheels on the car would lock. >> reporter: any doubt in your mind that the floor mats had nothing to do with it? the floor mat had nothing to do with ...

They're meeting a state standard, that bar has dumb yesterday down so much, they're barely able to graduate from high school and totally inadequately prepared for college. >> who do you blame for this failure? >> i agree with the secretary there have been a number of states that lowered, something like 15 to 18 states have lowered standards, but there are other political pressures. the pressures of the groups, whenever you sgrou a reform, the unions get into it, and obvious they react negative. let me put this in the form of the compliment, secretary duncan has said if you're going to evaluate...

Teachers, but they can't be fired because of the unions. >> you see the unions stepping up and doing interesting things. the idea of higher standards, both national unions are behind that. randy weingarten has said publicly they don't want to protect teachers who aren't making it. the vast majority of our teachers are working hard and we have to support them. we need to reward great teachers, help those in the middle improve and those at the bottom need to remove them. right now we're doing none of those things. >> dyswhat randy said about i sunday in he ways very critical of your position. i ...

The conservative republican study committee. >> the mcconnell plan doesn't have 218 republican votes, no way. who knows if there's a combination of rs and ds he'll go for, but i'm telling you house conservative members, they're not going to support the mcconnell plan, i'm not going to support the mcconnell plan. >> that's on sunday. the question is, where will these folks be on thursday and friday when they see the balanced budget amendment can't get through? and is eric cantor at john boehner's side when he ea's basically saying, okay, steny hoyer, let's find the votes. tomorrow, the house wi...