[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 46 (Monday, April 25, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        TRIBUTE TO RICHARD NIXON

  Mr. BENNETT. Mr. President, I join with others of my colleagues in 
rising to pay tribute to Richard Nixon during this time of national 
mourning prior to his funeral.
  I have a number of memories of the former President as do many 
Members of this body. I also represent my family where we have a number 
of memories of President Nixon.
  Coming to the Senate as a freshman, I formed a number of close 
relationships with my fellow freshmen and realized how close Members of 
a particular freshmen class can be to each other as a result of the 
experience of entering this body at the same time. Richard Nixon and my 
father, Senator Wallace F. Bennett, were freshmen together. They were 
elected in 1950 and served in this body in that period until 1952 when 
President Nixon became Vice President of the United States. As the 
Presiding Officer in this body for 8 years, he and my father continued 
that relationship.
  So it is something of a passing of an era in my family to realize 
that not only has my father passed on with his death last December but 
now the youngest Member of that freshmen class, Richard Nixon, has 
passed on truly ending the era represented by the election of 1950 to 
the U.S. Senate.
  I first met Richard Nixon after his defeat at the hands of President 
Kennedy and prior to his running for the governorship of California. It 
was a period of time when people thought he still had a future in 
politics.
  With a group of other young Republicans from Utah, I attended a Young 
Republicans convention in Minneapolis. We exerted some political 
influence at that convention, and the power brokers there came to us 
and said, ``What do you want in return for the power you seem to have 
accumulated?'' We said, ``We only want one thing. We want the 
opportunity to meet Richard Nixon.'' He was the keynote speaker at that 
convention.
  The arrangement was made, and we had the opportunity of visiting with 
Richard Nixon off the record, away from the glare of the press, and 
seeing how brilliant his mind was and how broad his scope was.
  I remember going home and saying to people, ``This man is the Winston 
Churchill of American politics. He will be back. Someone who has that 
much talent cannot possibly be kept in the wilderness forever.''
  I liked to repeat that because it sounds prophetic. I must confess, 
after he lost the governorship of California, I did not think he would 
be back and no longer referred to him in those terms. But he fooled me 
and he fooled the rest of the country by coming back and getting 
himself elected President in 1968.
  I served in the Nixon administration. I was appointed as the head of 
congressional liaison at the Department of Transportation, under the 
patronage of Bryce Harlow, who was Mr. Nixon's head of congressional 
liaison operating out of the White House.
  I went to the White House fairly often in that assignment and gained 
further appreciation for, and admiration of, Mr. Nixon's tremendous 
gifts and his dedication to the country.
  Then came Watergate. I will not pretend that Watergate is an 
insignificant interruption in the brilliant career of Richard Nixon and 
that it will fade with the passing of history. I do not think that is 
true. Watergate, in my view, was Richard Nixon's tragedy. And I say to 
people that Richard Nixon was King Lear, surrounded by courtiers who 
flattered him and who did him wrong, if I can mix metaphors between 
Shakespeare and country music.
  The people who had Richard Nixon's best interest at heart and who 
would have served the country best if they had been listened to were 
frozen out in the Nixon White House. They were kept at arm's length, 
and their advice went unheeded. So that, ultimately, the tragedy of 
Richard Nixon unfolded.
  The responsibility for that must lie with Richard Nixon. We would 
like to say that it was someone else's fault. But the responsibility 
lies with the man in charge, and the President himself had to bear the 
burden of that responsibility. He paid dearly for it, of course, being 
the only President in our history who was forced to resign from office.
  But the great measure of Richard Nixon's stature comes from the fact 
that he rose even from that disaster to the stature of a world 
statesman that he held at the time of his death.
  My last serious visit with Richard Nixon occurred about a year ago 
with my fellow freshmen Senators, under the leadership of Bob Dole, who 
wanted to help the freshmen Republicans get their bearings. I boarded 
an airplane early in my term and flew to New Jersey to have lunch with 
Richard Nixon. My first reaction, upon seeing him standing out in front 
of his townhouse in New Jersey waiting for us to arrive, was: My, how 
old he has become. I had not seen him for years, and I was startled at 
his physical appearance. I thought we were going to be dealing here 
with an old, tired man.
  We exchanged greetings, shook hands, went into his townhouse, and 
climbed to the top floor. He sat down and started to tell us what was 
going on in the world, and, immediately, any thought that he was too 
old to understand what was happening disappeared. For 2\1/2\ hours, 
without repeating himself or referring to a note, he took us around the 
world, country by country, leader by leader, situation by situation, 
and gave us a penetrating analysis of everything that was going on.
  When we talked domestic politics, he had a grasp of that, as well.
  I left thinking: The body may be old, but the mind is as sharp and as 
clear as it has ever been and now, freed of entanglement with his own 
ego being involved in the issues, is prepared to give us some of the 
clearest analyses that are available anywhere in America.
  I am delighted to learn that President Clinton was willing to 
recognize the genius of that mind and consulted with Richard Nixon in 
the days of President Clinton's early formative policy sessions.
  So I rise here in this Chamber, where Richard Nixon and my father 
first crossed paths, to say goodbye to him, to offer a tribute to his 
memory, and to add my personal recollections to the saga of this 
extraordinary man.
  As I look at American politics, I think there has probably never been 
a political figure who has occupied center stage longer than Richard 
Nixon did. George Washington was not on center stage for as long, nor 
Franklin Roosevelt; certainly not Abraham Lincoln, who came and went in 
a 5-year period.
  Richard Nixon was a national figure in 1948 with his first term in 
the House of Representatives and remained a national figure until 1994 
when he died, with sufficient honors that the President of the United 
States has ordered full recognition of the power and contribution of 
this man.
  So I conclude, Mr. President, with the classical allusion that I made 
earlier: Richard Nixon was King Lear, a man of towering ability, a man 
of great contribution, yet a man with flaws which served ultimately to 
bring him down, but, unlike any other character I know, a man who came 
back from having been brought down more often than any other figure in 
our history.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. RIEGLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Mathews). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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