[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 145 (Friday, October 7, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


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

 
                       HONORING SENATOR DANFORTH

  Mr. DURENBERGER. Madam President, I rise today to honor one of the 
greatest Senators I have ever had the privilege to know--and one of the 
best friends I personally have had in my 16 years in the Senate.
  Jack Danforth had already been here for 2 years when I became a 
Senator. The Senate GOP was about to make a major shift to the right, 
and I am grateful to Jack for his leadership of what became a steadily 
smaller moderate wing in our party.
  Jack Danforth is a public figure whose every act is motivated by a 
deeply private faith. This is what accounts for so much of the 
authority with which he speaks on so many issues.
  Having been in Washington for 16 years, I can tell you that far too 
many politicians are motivated by so-called ``talking points'' 
concocted by staffers. Jack Danforth is motivated by ``thinking 
points'' that are based on a deep personal value system and a lifetime 
of study of the major issues facing America.
  As my colleague on the Finance Committee, Jack has blazed a major 
trail on trade, tax policy, and health care reform.
  On trade especially, Jack has been in the forefront throughout my 
years in the Senate. It is thanks in large part to him that Congress 
plays a role alongside the executive branch in international trade 
policy--and his outspoken activism has made him very well known in the 
financial councils of Tokyo and other foreign capitals. Danforth alumna 
Susan Schwab--who served as head of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial 
Service--has been just one of Jack's legacies to U.S. trade policy.
  Jack cares about trade because he cares about Missouri. His work on 
trade--as well as his activism on behalf of home-State companies--has 
made him a very valuable booster for the State. In this regard, I would 
like to remind my friend of an incident that I am sure he would rather 
forget. In his capacity as a Missouri booster, he was forced back in 
1987 to eat Wheaties in front of the Minnesota Twins. In 1987, the 
Twins--and I am sure this fact is stamped forever on the memories of 
all my colleagues--had beaten Jack's St. Louis Cardinals in the World 
Series.
  Jack has been an all-around effective Senator for the people of 
Missouri. But I would like to talk today about one part of Jack's 
history that I predict will still be talked about a century from now.
  In October of 1991, the blood was in the water on Clarence Thomas. 
The mood had shifted--and we all know how Congress' mood can shift, 
with the suddenness of an earthquake--and people were starting to 
position themselves for a defeated nomination. It gets to a point when 
you're going to fail, and you have to do it with good grace.
  Except for one thing: Jack Danforth  believed in his friend. 
Furthermore, he believed that if you are here in the Senate only to cut 
and run when its starts getting tough, you do not deserve to be here in 
the first place.
  And so Jack Danforth got up and blasted this Chamber. He almost 
singlehandedly put a stop to the rush to judgment that was taking place 
on the Senate floor. He made an appeal to the deeper conscience of each 
and every one of us--the part of ourselves that believes in the Golden 
Rule.
  Do unto others as you yourself would be done.
  With Jack Danforth's Horatio-at-the-bridge act of moral heroism, the 
attempted character assassination of Clarence Thomas was averted.
  Madam President, even if Clarence Thomas is on the Supreme Court for 
decades to come, I believe that Jack Danforth's action will be 
remembered after Justice Thomas has left the Court. I believe that long 
after that controversy has faded from America's memory, Jack Danforth's 
example of loyalty to friends--and loyalty to moral values--will be 
taught to schoolchildren as an example of the highest virtue of which 
human beings are capable.
  As a Senator--and as a human being--Jack Danforth has been a man for 
others. I am proud to have been his coworker--and his friend--for 16 
years. I wish him and his wife Sally all happiness in the years ahead.

                          ____________________