[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]

 
                   TRIBUTE TO SENATOR GEORGE MITCHELL

  Mr. GRAMM. Mr. President, the first thing I want to do is talk about 
the majority leader, George Mitchell.
  It has been my special privilege for the last few years to serve with 
majority leader George Mitchell of Maine. I do not think it will come 
as a surprise to anybody who has followed debate in the Senate to learn 
that George Mitchell and I have been on opposite sides on many issues. 
But I would just like to make a couple of observations about the 
majority leader since he is retiring at the end of this term.
  No. 1, I doubt that we will have as able an adversary again, at least 
speaking for Republicans, as we have had in George Mitchell.
  No. 2, I have often sat during long and boring debates in the Senate 
and thought about if you were going to put together Members of the 
Senate in an historical context who ought to be in that Senate. I have 
thought about which Members of the Senate serving today would rank 
among the Members of the Senate who are worthy of being remembered.
  Those of us who have the privilege to sit here at these ancient desks 
from time to time pull out the drawers and look at the names of those 
who have written or carved their name into a desk drawer, which is a 
tradition here. And I do it to keep myself humble, because when I open 
the desk drawer and look at these names very few of them are people 
that I have ever even heard of. The world forgets very quickly most of 
those who serve in the U.S. Senate.
  I have asked myself on occasion who, of those now serving in this 
Senate is worthy of being remembered, and as I have sat through long 
debates, often late at night, with nothing better to do at the moment, 
I have often tried to select five Members of the Senate who I think 
stand out as people who are worthy of being remembered. I can say that 
in the last few years I have never put that list together that George 
Mitchell's name has not been on the list.
  Finally, let me say that, at a time when so many people think of 
Congress as an organization which is separated from America, when it is 
conventional wisdom to try to present Members of the Senate as being 
some elite and remote group, I would just like to say that it is 
reassuring to me to know that a person born in Maine of very humble 
beginnings can rise to be majority leader of the U.S. Senate.
  So I will not miss our distinguished majority leader as a tough and 
competitive adversary, I will not miss many of the votes he has cast, 
often on the winning side on many issues that I care deeply about, but 
as a human being and as a born leader, George Mitchell is very hard to 
match. And I will be very proud someday to tell my grandchildren that I 
served in the Senate with George Mitchell.

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