Lawmakers on the House Ethics Committee said Hart made a statement on the House floor yesterday about his ethics issues. "I listened to your mea culpa on the floor yesterday," Rep. Bill Killen, D-Boise, told Hart. "You did say, and I was glad to hear you say it, that if you could go 15 years back you would have made different choices. I was interested if you would care to expand on that at all."

Hart responded, "One of my concerns is that what's happened here could have a chilling effect on people who might want to run for office in the future, and that we might be changing the criteria of what it takes to be a candidate for the Legislature, and that criteria might include having a perfect past. And I've made some mistakes in my past. ... I'm concerned that there'll be people in the future who may not run for public office because they don't have a pristine past. I don't have a pristine past and certainly you know about that."