[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 149 (Thursday, December 1, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: December 1, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                               JIM SASSER

  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Jim Sasser: He and I served on two committees 
together; one was the Budget Committee, which he chaired, the job he 
took willingly--had people scratching their heads. Talk about the 
ultimate service to this Constitution, this body, this country of 
ours--the chairman of the Budget Committee. I know, because when I came 
in a mutual friend of ours, Senator Biden, from Delaware, whom I knew 
before I arrived here, said: Frank, I am going to do you a favor. I am 
going to get off the Budget Committee and give you a chance to serve. I 
have never quite forgiven him for that.
  The budget committee is a tough place to be. But Jim Sasser had a way 
of engaging everybody in the process, even those with whom he differed 
most deeply. He did it with a degree of elegance and flare that won 
people to his side. And I remember Jim thumbing through the charts in 
the caucus room one after another. I could not remember what page we 
were on. He was looking at the bottom page, sometimes pulling out those 
little glasses to make sure he saw the numbers right, but always in 
friendship and always making you feel good even if you disagreed with 
him, which was hard to do.
  Jim Sasser, as was said by our colleague from Connecticut, was sure 
to be the next leader on our side. And I do not know whether he 
remembers but I remember it. I am sure everybody said this to him so 
far. ``I was one of the first to encourage you to do that.'' Everybody 
is always the first. Like the folks back home, you cannot figure out 
how you got so few votes when everybody you meet said they voted for 
you. Similarly, here.
  But Jim Sasser is someone who is always balanced in his point of 
view, always has charm about himself. And when Mary got into the 
picture, his wife, Mary, that melted the resistance altogether.
  I believe that our friendship will continue to carry on. But I hope 
that the decision made by the voters who took away the opportunity of 
Jim Sasser, Harris Wofford, to continue to serve, will not discourage 
them from continuing to try to make a contribution.
  Jim Sasser has such enormous ability. He is when I visited with him 
in Tennessee, I think it is fair to say, beloved by the people that I 
got to talk to and that I met. So it was here.
  There are very few people who do not feel very deeply about Jim 
Sasser. Like more than just a friend, a deep bond that connected us 
together because of the belief that we had that our country is good and 
our country is right and that we fought genuinely believing that we 
could make it better.
  I want to say that Senator Sasser, Jim, the fight that he has fought, 
has made this place and this country better for the engagements. I can 
speak for myself. Despite the fact that I differ from Chris Dodd, I 
came here with white hair. I had already had a lot of experience in the 
business world, worked with corporate types all over the place, some of 
the biggest corporations. I have never seen bigger people than the 
people who we are talking about tonight, bigger people than Don Riegle, 
Jim Sasser, Harris Wofford, people who put up with a lot from the 
outside world even as they defended the view of the smallest of them, 
the most needy of them, and the greatest of them.
  So I say God bless, continued good health, continued friendship. I 
would hope that we will have a chance to share a minute or a dinner or 
a phone call together. I need it. This place needs it. Thank you.

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