As a scientist I can't think of a better way to bias your research and end up with bogus results:

The record is clear, and once we are able to get hearings on this, everyone will see what they already know, and that is that those who have the least opportunities at this age find themselves in the military, as I did when I was 18 years old.

Not only is Charles Rangel looking to find what he wants to find in these proposed hearings but he is announcing to the world what data he will find and what his conclusions are. Even if he managed to find data completely contradictory to what he believed he would have a difficult time admitting he was wrong and changing his conclusions. For a politician this is even more difficult than for a scientist. But then again he is a politician, not a scientist. For them it's not about finding the truth or doing the right thing--those things are irrelevant in politics.

That reminds me of a couple jokes:

POLITICIAN: From the Greek `poly' ("many") and the French `tete' ("head" or "face," as in `tete-a-tete': head to head or face to face). Hence `polytetien', a person of two or more faces.

Martin Pitt

And my favorite along this line:

The word 'politics' comes from the Greek root 'poly', meaning many, and 'tics', meaning blood-sucking parasites.