[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 7 (Thursday, January 12, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S827-S828]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                       IN HONOR OF JAMES FLEMING

  Mr. FORD. Mr. President, I think it is appropriate for me to say a 
few words about James Fleming, a man whose knowledge of and respect for 
this Chamber was matched by few. When he died last week, I lost my most 
trusted political adviser, my confidant, my dear friend.
  He was historian, constitutional scholar, purveyor of Kentucky 
politics, and the unsung hero behind every major legislative initiative 
in the Kentucky legislature of the 1960's and 1970's. Years later, 
Kentucky Governors and U.S. Senators alike would seek Jim out, whether 
he was holding court in Frankfort or his office at 167 Russell. I might 
add, that it was his habit to being holding court at 7 a.m., much to 
the dismay of many a late-sleeping lobbyist.
  But most important, Jim was always the boy from the small town of 
Ludlow, who fell in love with Edith Murrell Gaines and married her 
against her father's best judgment. The one who became a mentor to so 
many legislators and staff assistants; who was so proud of his 
children, grandchild, and the baby on its way; and who, long before 
polls and focus groups came into fashion, used the neighborhood bridge 
club as his political barometer. Those traits never failed him.
  The papers will tell of Jim's remarkable mind that could recount the 
vote tally in any county 20 years later and made redistricting an art 
form. They will tell of the parliamentary wizard who left the 
opposition hopelessly muddled when they had been duped. And they will 
tell of the visionary who worked to revise the State's constitution, 
succeeded at streamlining the workings of the General Assembly and 
reorganized Kentucky's executive branch.
  But the people who knew him best will tell of the man who was just as 
likely to draw analogies from baseball and mystery stories as he was 
Shakespeare and Aristotle. They'll tell of the man whose love of a good 
drink was replaced by his love of a good donut, of the devout Catholic 
who confessed to me last year that he'd run out of things to give up 
for Lent, and who would always return your books with chocolate smears 
and notes in the margin with his famous, illegible red scrawl.
  The Old Testament tells us that ``The price of wisdom is above 
rubies.'' Surely Jim was a rich man. But if he was rich, we were richer 
still, because ``The storyteller is the person who creates an 
atmosphere in which wisdom can reveal itself.'' And Jim had so much 
wisdom to reveal.
  Rest assured that Jim's loved ones, his good friends, and his not-so-
good friends, will be retelling his stories. It might be the one about 
his impersonating me up at the Lieutenant Governor's conference in 
Rhode Island. Others will tell of the time when the television cameras, 
and Edith Murrell, caught Jim when he snuck out from work to catch an 
afternoon of racing at Churchill Downs. And perhaps, a few will tell 
what really went on during those redistricting sessions with the maps 
spread out on the LRC office floor, or how he was always being mistaken 
for the ``Senator'' up in Washington.
  Well, the last one was fine with me, even if it did get him seated 
for dinner before me once too often. We were always a team.
  I can't say goodbye before expressing my sincerest thanks to his 
children Barbara Clair and Mike, along with his granddaughter Laura, 
and all the family members for sharing a large part of Jim with us. I 
know there were times when Jim felt he should be with them, but 
wouldn't leave me. I cherish them 
[[Page S828]] and Jim for standing by me and want everyone to know how 
much I treasured and will miss this friendship.
  Mr. President, I also ask unanimous consent that the Louisville 
Courier-Journal editorial of January 5, 1995 be printed in the 
Congressional Record following my remarks.
  There being no objection, the editorial was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:
                        James Fleming's Example

       The death of James Fleming leaves an empty place in our 
     civic life. He was, in a state where politics has more than 
     usual significance, a consummate politician. His work in the 
     public arena was a repudiation of those who like to use the 
     word ``political'' as a pejorative.
       This is a particularly poignant moment for the departure of 
     Mr. Fleming, a long-time aide to U.S. Sen. Wendell Ford and 
     one of the people most responsible for the current forms of 
     Kentucky governance.
       In Washington, a battalion of newly empowered Republicans 
     are conducting an obtuse, overbroad assault on the whole 
     notion of activist government.
       They're billing the attack as some sort of noble 
     revolution. Others say it's just a self-indulgent revenge 
     against those who've tried, in recent decades, to make 
     representative democracy work for the disadvantaged.
       Mr. Fleming didn't take much time to argue such points. He 
     knew the value of a properly functioning government, in 
     Frankfort or Washington. He understood the mechanics of 
     democracy. he knew how to overhaul the machinery of 
     government, to make it click and hum. He read voraciously, 
     asked questions relentlessly, informed himself fully. He 
     digested the Federal Register as avidly as the daily weather 
     report. He shared his information and insight with those he 
     mentored.
       What he did not do is posture. Which made him unusual 
     around here and virtually unique in the nation's capital.
       Most important, he had a moral compass that belied his 
     image as a gruff operative.
       His directional indicator was not held in place by the kind 
     of genteel insensitivity that points the way for Newt and 
     Newt's followers.
       Mr. Fleming's legacy is what he did, not what he undid.
       

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