[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 87 (Wednesday, May 24, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S7385]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TRIBUTE TO LES ASPIN

  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I knew Les Aspin for 25 years. In 1970, 
I was a junior in high school in Janesville, WI, when I signed up as a 
volunteer on Les' first campaign for the First Congressional District 
seat in Wisconsin. He won that election after a tough recount in the 
primary, defeated the incumbent Congressman.
  I then interned in his Janesville, WI, Post Office basement office in 
1971 and in 1972 during the summers. During the next quarter century, 
we had a continuing friendship, as he carved out a distinguished career 
in the United States House of Representatives, eventually rising to 
become the chairman of the Armed Services Committee while I prepared 
for and began my own career.
  By temperament and training, Les Aspin was a man who listened to 
ideas and demanded facts. His mind was trained at some of the best 
educational institutions in the world: Yale, Oxford, and MIT.
  Sometimes the conclusions he reached after thoroughly probing a 
problem were not welcomed by all who heard them, but they were always 
the product of a rigorous and honest intellectual process. Les Aspin 
enjoyed the successes and endured the setbacks common to all Members 
who choose a career in public service.
  His service was marked by unflagging dedication. I believe he always 
did what he thought was right and he always did his best.
  One thing was readily apparent. He came from our strong Wisconsin 
reformist tradition. He was long an opponent of waste and fraud and 
abuse in Government, including but certainly not limited, to the 
military.
  He fought against junk telephone calls as well as junkets. He 
unearthed cost overruns in big-ticket weapons projects, punched holes 
in corporate propaganda campaigns, and dragged some highly questionable 
foreign business practices out into the spotlight.
  He also criticized the insular environment that enveloped the Defense 
Department and the defense industry that fostered the waste of 
taxpayers' money.
  Along the way, Les Aspin became recognized as one of the Congress' 
leading experts on military policy. I would say one of the leading 
experts of any time in the history of our Congress.
  Les Aspin served his country diligently in many capacities. As an 
Army captain, he worked as an analyst in the Pentagon; he served on the 
staff of President John Kennedy's Council of Economic Advisors; he 
represented Wisconsinites for 22 years in Congress; he enthusiastically 
took on the giant task of steering the Defense Department into the 
uncharted waters of the post-cold war era.
  When Les Aspin suffered his fatal stroke, he was chairing the 
President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, working with his 
friend and colleague, CIA director John Deutch, on needed reforms in 
our intelligence communities.
  Mr. President, Les Aspin was a man I deeply respected and admired. As 
I look back at the fact that my own entry into politics began in his 
first campaign for office in 1970, I feel a profound sense of loss at 
his passing. He was a good friend and a dedicated public servant. Far 
too soon we have lost an exceptional human being.
  I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.
  

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