[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 127 (Tuesday, September 13, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 13, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                       BOB MICHEL'S FREEDOM MEDAL

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, I was pleased that President Clinton 
recently awarded the Medal of Freedom to Congressman Bob Michel.
  He has been a real ``class'' Member of Congress, who has contributed 
much to his district, my State, and much more important, to the Nation.
  The award was richly merited.
  I ask to insert into the Record an editorial from the Peoria Journal 
Star regarding the award of the Medal of Freedom to Bob Michel.
  The editorial follows:

                       Bob Michel's Freedom Medal

       We echo the accolades heaped upon Bob Michel by President 
     Bill Clinton Monday in awarding the 38-year Republican 
     congressman the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's 
     highest civilian honor. That it comes from a Democratic 
     president, in an age when rancorous partisanship has made the 
     public's faith in effective government almost nonexistent, 
     makes it all the more meaningful.
       Michel ``served our nation well, choosing the * * * harder 
     course of conciliation more often than the divisive but 
     easier course of confrontation,'' Clinton was quoted as 
     saying.
       Indeed, we praise Michel today for the same reasons that 
     many in his own party have snubbed him--for trying to make 
     government work rather than fostering gridlock, for 
     practicing pragmatism rather than politics when compromise 
     served the greater good, for trying to be a problem solver 
     rather than a problem maker. Given a choice between a Bob 
     Michel and a Newt Gingrich--or even a Sen. Phil Gramm, who 
     promised just this week to ``use every power that I have'' to 
     stop a Clinton health plan from becoming law (the key word 
     being Clinton)--we much prefer Bob Michel.
       Sure, we have disagreed with Michel here and there over the 
     last four decades, but we also believe that on matters of 
     significance, he genuinely tried to act in the best interests 
     of America and the Peoria area. He tried to do the right 
     thing, and in so doing earned respect on both sides of the 
     aisle. He did not cheapen the term ``public servant,'' but 
     elevated it.
       That is why Michel received the Medal of Freedom this week, 
     and why the likes of Gingrich and Gramm probably never 
     will.

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