[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 74 (Friday, May 5, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S6199]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          SENATOR DAVID PRYOR

  Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, let me just say a word about my friend, 
David Pryor.
  David Pryor has determined that he will now retire from the Senate, 
and we came here together. We came here in the class of 1978. There was 
a class of 20, the largest class ever to come into the U.S. Senate at 
one time, 11 Republicans and 9 Democrats. We were very close. Those of 
us who are still here are still very close. In fact, in January of this 
year, the remaining group of us met together and had dinner together 
with our spouses, and shared the attitude of how can we make the place 
work a little better instead of just chopping ourselves to pieces, as 
we sometimes do. But that goes with the territory. That is politics. It 
was always a little rough and tumble, and it still will be, and ever 
shall be, world without end.
  But David Pryor and Barbara--and there is a remarkable woman. She has 
chosen to take a little of a secondary role in the life of this 
wonderful man. Let me tell you, she is in every sense as much a part of 
David's success in life and fiber as my own wife, Ann, is of mine.
  So David and I came here, and I was placed in the basement of the 
Russell Building because it was thought that I was No. 100. Well, the 
senior Senator from Wyoming had resigned an hour before the deadline of 
midnight of the New Year. So I was not 100; I was No. 88, which was a 
significant leapfrog. We have since changed that. We do not do that 
anymore. But nevertheless, thinking I was No. 100, they placed me in 
the basement of the Russell Building, with bars on the windows, which 
were not unfamiliar to me from some of my activities in youth. But, 
nevertheless, it looked like the sewers of Paris down in there.
  But I was glad to have any kind of opportunity to be here, thrilled 
as we all are, and hope always will be, or we shall get out. David 
Pryor, who I had come to know in those early days, came to visit me in 
my dungeon surroundings, the durance vile. He said, ``This is quite an 
office you have here.'' I said, ``It is. But at least I am here.'' He 
said, ``You need something to brighten it up.'' I said, ``Well, that 
would be lovely. I think you are right.'' So later in the afternoon he 
mailed to me, hand carried by courier, a dead plant with the leaves 
dangling in grotesque, yellowish brown fashion. He said he thought that 
the plant matched the surroundings of what I had there. And then he 
later showed up personally to assure himself that I had received this 
beautiful plant to grace my new surroundings.

  Well, that is part of David. He is a wonderful friend, and he is a 
very serious man. He comes to this floor, and he defends his friend, 
his principal friend, who is a man named Bill Clinton, President of the 
United States. I used to come to this floor and defend my friend, a man 
I had known for 35 years named George Bush, President of the United 
States. And David and I have often laughed at how it is when you are a 
close friend of a President, because when somebody is here tearing them 
up, your staff says, ``Get over there; they are doing something bad,'' 
and you end up dropping what you do and you come over to defend your 
friend. I have done that with George Bush, and I have seen Dave do it 
with great loyalty for his friend Bill Clinton.
  I have always admired him. I have worked with him. There is not a 
finer, more principled man, a man of remarkable honesty and directness, 
and a man to whom I once said, ``David, did you run for president of 
the first grade? Because I don't think you have missed any part of 
politics. I think you have been in this since your birth.'' When you 
look at the public record that he leaves behind as a legislator, as a 
member of the Arkansas Assembly, a Congressman, a Governor, a Senator, 
the people of Arkansas love this man, and he could have been here as 
long as he wished. He has decided, however, to do something many, many 
of us think about more and more often, and that is stepping away, not 
with irritation or hostility or angst or anguish, just knowing that 
there are other things to do in life, stepping away just as a person 
such as Jack Danforth of Missouri--no regret, no recrimination, just 
stepping away.
  That is what David has chosen to do, and I just want to say that I 
wish him well. And he will do well. He looks spirited and relieved and 
released, had a snappy tan to his face, lilt to his step the other 
day--he had gone golfing, a shocking revelation.
  And so to David and to Barbara, special people of special depth, 
special substance and sensitivity, and their children, David, Jr., 
Mark, and Scott, who are great friends of our daughter Susan--they grew 
up together here in Washington--to David and Barbara Pryor, with whom 
we have shared much, spent time together, talked of things much deeper 
than legislation, I say Godspeed. I join in wishing them well in a new 
chapter of their lives which will be very, very fulfilling to them, I 
am sure, knowing the type of people they are.
  I thank the Chair.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coverdell). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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