[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 23 (Monday, March 7, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 7, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                   TRIBUTE TO SENATOR GEORGE MITCHELL

  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I rise today to express the deepest 
respect for our distinguished majority leader, Senator Mitchell. When 
Senator Mitchell was appointed to this body, the conventional wisdom 
around this town was that he was going to be a short-timer. The word 
had spread inside the beltway that George Mitchell, with his reserved 
and judicious manner, would never make it in the rough and tumble world 
of elected politics.
  But those people did not know George Mitchell. With his landslide 
election in 1982, he and the voters of Maine proved the Washington 
pundits wrong. And just a little more than 4 years later, Senator 
Mitchell became our majority leader.
  I was among the first in this body to support George Mitchell, 
support him in his race for majority leader against two other 
outstanding Senators. While every Senator sometimes questions decisions 
he or she makes over the course of a career, I will never regret my 
support for George Mitchell.
  Like Montana's Mike Mansfield, George Mitchell has set the highest 
standards of ethics and public service. At a time when this institution 
faces much criticism, there can be no better role model or spokesman 
for the Senate than George Mitchell.
  While much of his success as a majority leader can be attributed to 
the skills of a great diplomat and smart negotiator, he is also a 
fighter--a fighter for the principles and ideals that I personally 
believe personify the Democratic Party. Whether the issue is jobs, the 
environment, tax fairness, trade policy--whatever it may be--George 
Mitchell always states his views with force, conviction, logic, 
perception, wisdom, and decency.
  Beyond this, he is also a fighter for the State of Maine. His 
constituents could ask for no greater friend or a more tireless 
advocate. Through his almost weekly trips home and hundreds of town 
meetings around Maine, George Mitchell never lost touch with his 
people, the people who sent him to Washington.
  I might say, Mr. President, I was struck when, in the election before 
last, only one county in the State of Maine did not vote for George 
Mitchell. What did he do? He sent letters to every voter in that 
county. He went back immediately and scheduled a visit with that county 
and asked them what he did wrong; what could he do to better represent 
them--the people in the one county he did not carry in the State of 
Maine.
  In this last election, he carried that county. I think there were one 
or two precincts in the entire State of Maine that did not support him. 
Every precinct in the State of Maine voted for George Mitchell in his 
last election but for two or three. Knowing George, had he run again 
for reelection, I know he would have worked hard to carry those 
remaining two or three precincts and every precinct in the State of 
Maine would have supported George Mitchell. That is evidence of his 
dedication to his State.
  Just outside this Chamber lies the Senate Reception Room which we all 
know about. It is a place where Senators step off the floor to meet 
with constituents, reporters and friends. It also might be considered 
our Senate's Hall of Fame.
  In the 1950's, a young Senator named John F. Kennedy headed a special 
committee that voted to commission the painting of five portraits of 
outstanding Senators on the walls of our reception room. They chose 
Daniel Webster of New Hampshire; Henry Clay of Kentucky; John C. 
Calhoun of South Carolina; Robert La Follett of Wisconsin; and Robert 
Taft of Ohio.
  While I believe Senator Mitchell will want to achieve greatness 
outside the Senate, I also believe that his service to the Senate and 
to the United States ranks with those great persons whose faces now 
watch over the Senate Reception Room. For his successors as Senator 
from Maine and majority leader, he is going to be one tough act to 
follow.
  To sum it up, Mr. President, I can think of no one that I have had 
the privilege to know in my life who is more intelligent, who is more 
articulate, who is wiser, who is more perceptive and, above all, more 
decent than George Mitchell. He is one of the truly great Americans 
that I have had the privilege to know.
  I say that also in part because as he once said--and I believe it to 
be true--there is no more noble human endeavor than public service, 
service generally, whether it is service to family, service to friends, 
service to community--service, there is no more noble human endeavor 
than service. And George Mitchell serves this body and has served his 
people in Maine and the Senate and the country in many capacities. 
Whether it was as a judge or working on the staff in the Senate for 
Senator Muskie, whatever he did, he always served; he served people.
  I feel confident, I know he will continue to serve in some other 
capacity. I do not know what it will be. But I deeply hope that whoever 
succeeds him in representing Maine and whoever succeeds him as majority 
leader looks back and follows that model and serves his people and his 
Nation as much as George Mitchell.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Carolina.
  Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, let me commend the Senator from Montana. 
I was committed to the distinguished Senator from Louisiana, Senator 
Bennett Johnston. I voted for him and I did not vote for Senator 
Mitchell. But I certainly join in what the Senator from Montana is 
saying.
  Ten years ago, I got to watch Senator Mitchell in his own home State. 
I knew at the particular time that he was a disciple of Senator Muskie, 
like myself. I was a follower in much of Senator Muskie's footsteps. 
The fact of the matter is, when President Eisenhower appointed an 
intergovernmental relations advisory commission, Senator Muskie was a 
Senator appointee as a Democrat and I was a gubernatorial appointee 
back in the fifties at that time and later reappointed by President 
Kennedy.
  Senator Muskie was a mentor to Senator Mitchell. George Mitchell was 
the hardest working fellow anyone could ever find. He had worked his 
way back in Maine and into law school here in Washington, DC, and, upon 
graduation, Senator Muskie had him appointed as a Federal judge. You 
know these Federal judges. That is the nearest thing to immortality on 
Earth. You are not going to get rid of them. They are never going to 
resign. Whatever they say or whatever they do, they have lifetime 
health care, lifetime pay and everything else of that kind.
  Here was a gentleman, George Mitchell, who really yearned so much for 
public service that he gave up the emoluments and lifetime guarantee of 
an income.
  On that score, Senator Baucus has really touched on the matter of 
public service. Here in a day and age when all you can hear is the 
derision and the ridicule of those in public office and the general 
approach that no one should be trusted beyond two terms--somehow 
whenever you get in it you are bound to be corrupted, so the law should 
be that no one should serve more than two terms, term limitations and 
that fever and everything else--what Senator Baucus has taken as a 
point is well stated.
  There is no greater opportunity to do more for people than in public 
office, period. Yes, the minister does well, the teacher in the 
classroom does well, but for even more people, for people generally of 
all ages and across a broad spectrum, if you look at public service, 
that is the great pay, because you have a wonderful opportunity to do 
so many things for so many people.
  And with that yearn, George Mitchell gave up that lifetime guarantee 
and got into hurly-burly politics and, in what is generally considered 
to be a Republican State, got elected as a Democrat.
  I remember when he was so far behind people were even laughing at 
that particular time, but just through his hard work and determination, 
I say to the Senator from Montana, he really worked his way into the 
hearts of all Mainers.
  I have campaigned in that State from Madawaska up in the north down 
to Kennebunkport, to Portland and Bangor, and I have been in little 
Waterville where the Mitchell family was raised, where his mother could 
not exactly speak the English language, working in the textile plant, 
and little George as a youngster was taken down to her at lunch time 
and everything else of that kind, very humble beginnings and all the 
brothers working and what have you. And here for him to take on the 
responsibility as majority leader and perform as he has is just 
astounding. I have not seen anyone better. I watched as a Governor and 
worked with Lyndon Johnson, and I watched the other majority leaders 
come along since that time, all outstanding.
  The leadership post today is far and away the most complex role and 
mission in Congress. One of the things, for example, is that you are 
looked upon to make the case for the President's policies on the 
various Sunday news interview programs. George Mitchell's measured tone 
of settling arguments here on the floor, summing up in very cogent, 
succinct, meaningful, understandable terms, has been remarkable. But 
even more remarkable has been his performance on these Sunday shows.
  It made me proud to see George on these Sunday programs. Even when he 
was articulating a position that I was in opposition to, I had to 
credit him with the outstanding talent of an analytical mind, a lawyer 
and a judge's mind. He went about his particular task of persuading and 
never raised his voice. Senator Muskie and I used to talk about 
righteous indignation, and Senator Muskie would get a little heated and 
I would get a little heated but not George Mitchell. He did it in very 
strong terms--as Senator Baucus said, a great fighter--but he did it in 
even stronger terms by his understanding and cogency, in the way he 
expressed his particular thought, most persuasive. He has been very, 
very considerate.
  I guess if I had one little suggestion I have ever made is that he 
probably was too indulgent and too considerate of us as Senators. We 
all come filing in now saying I have to go to a meeting; please give me 
a window. I have a fundraiser; I have to go there. Can we not have any 
votes, and what have you.
  Maybe that is the fault of all of us and not George's in that 
respect, because when I was first here we met every Monday morning and 
voted in the mornings and then in the afternoon had our hearings. And 
now with the television, of course, we have it reversed so everybody 
can get their releases out and make their press conference appearances 
and then come to the committees and make sure that questions are asked 
that are going to be on the 7 o'clock news. Maybe if we could do all 
that debating between 9 o'clock or 8 o'clock in the morning and 2 
o'clock in the afternoon, then we would know there would only be a 
window for a TV appearance between 2 and 4 because the press crowd 
would not even cover you thereafter and that would limit a lot of these 
hearings and I think expedite things.
  But that has just been a private view of my own, trying to get things 
moving and trying to help majority leader Mitchell.
  I guess at another time I will go get that record and make a more 
studied presentation, but I cannot let the moment pass with the 
comments made about George Mitchell without me joining in. I have seen 
them all. He is the best. He has worked hard. He has worked with a 
rather cantankerous opposition. Ye, gads.
  When Senator Mansfield was here, he called up a bill. Republicans 
will not let poor Senator Mitchell call up a bill. They have to debate 
whether to even call it up, then ask about that. And then when you get 
on the subject, we used to sort of try to adhere to a germaneness rule. 
Now we are on the GATT when I am trying to get the technology bill. 
They are off and running on the tangent of international trade. And 
these are the monkey shines that go on. They know every way. They will 
not confirm.
  I have a lawyer for the committee, the Senator's committee. He voted 
to approve her. I voted to approve her. We have all voted to approve 
her. We cannot bring nomination up. Why? Because they tell us they want 
to know what another appointment is going to be on the commission 
before we take up this one.
  These are the kinds of shenanigans that Senator Mitchell has had to 
put up with and still try to make progress, and everybody says, ``Why 
don't we work harder? Why don't we do this? Why don't we do that.''
  The distinguished majority leader has had a more difficult time 
working out agreements around here than any other majority leader ever 
had in the history of government, and he has done it in an outstanding 
fashion.
  So I commend the Senator from Montana in noting the shocking news 
that our George Mitchell is going to leave. It is, as Carl Levin said, 
the worst thing that could possibly happen to the Senate at this 
particular time.
  It is going to be very, very difficult to get someone with George's 
understanding, his brilliance, his humor, his sensitivity, and his 
consideration. So I will just rest my case there for the moment and 
thank the Senator from Montana for interrupting these proceedings.
  Mr. PRESSLER. Madam President, in good humor, I might say that I have 
served in the Senate with the distinguished Senator from South Carolina 
under some Republican majority leaders, Robert Dole and Howard Baker, 
and probably I could list some shenanigans from the other side. But I 
will not do that in good humor. But I just could not resist responding 
a little bit.

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