[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 205 (Wednesday, December 20, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S18974-S18975]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          CONCERN FOR CONGRESS

  Mr. GLENN. Mr. President, I rise to speak very briefly about the 
remarks that Senator Byrd made on the floor. Mr. President, the subject 
that Senator Byrd brought up today is something that has been bothering 
me in an increasing way all during this year. Perhaps it is because 
some of the tensions are particularly high with regard to the 
directions that the Government, the Congress, is trying to take us this 
year. These concerns have bothered me as much as they have Senator Byrd 
and not just in the examples he mentioned earlier today but some 
others, also.
  I think it is time to reflect briefly on that and I will not take the 
Senate's time for very long, but I want to make a few remarks in 
support of his earlier statement.
  Our Government is formed with the respect of the view of all parties. 
We look back and our Constitution did not establish a benevolent 
monarchy where one person makes the decisions for all of our country 
and moves us ahead or behind on the decisions of one person. We have 
split powers in Government. We have a legislative, executive and a 
judicial branch of Government. We have seen our system of 
constitutional Government evolve into 435 House Members and 100 Members 
of the U.S. Senate. Mr. President, 535 people were sent here not to be 
of one mind or one kind of person or one view, but sent here expecting 
to bring our varied views from all over the country and work out the 
best solution to what the future of this country may be.

  Try as they may, no one person or one small group has all the wisdom 
so that they can confidently say we are right and you are wrong. That 
is not the way we are set up. And when it comes down to where we stoop 
to just name calling, which has happened on the floor, it tells more to 
me about the speaker than it does about the object the speaker happens 
to be belittling at the moment.
  I think we maybe should remember something that too often is 
forgotten on the floor. That is, you cannot build yourself up by 
tearing someone else down. When someone uses belittling or semi-
insulting language to the President of the United States, does that 
demean the President? No, it does not. It demeans the speaker. And it 
brands the speaker as someone who is, perhaps, covering up an inability 
to deal with the matters at hand by attacking the other side in a 
belittling way. The resort to invective and character assassination is 
not constructive legislative discourse, as the voters expected. We have 
seen examples here on the floor in the last few months of signs being 
put up, ``Where is Bill? Where is Bill? Hey, where is Bill?'' Arms 
waving, ``Where is Bill?'' Playing to the cameras and referring to the 
President as ``that guy,'' repeatedly.
  We had, one evening here, over by the exit door over there on the 
east side of the floor, a number of House Members who had come over 
here and were on the floor that day. Senator Byrd was making a short 
statement, and they were milling around and actually laughing at 
Senator Byrd, laughing out loud at Senator Byrd on the Senate floor, 
sneering at him. When we called attention to them there, they kept 
right up, one person in particular.
  What has happened? I do not think we would have seen that some years 
ago. It is insulting, No. 1; insulting, not just to the President or 
not insulting just to Senator Byrd; it is insulting to the Senate of 
the United States of America. To me that is a new low. Is it any 
wonder, when we see our own Members behaving like that, any wonder why 
people have their doubts about the Congress of the United States?
  ``Politics,'' a great word, it stems from an old Greek word meaning 
``business of all the people.'' I cannot think of anything in a 
democracy, anything in this United States of America, that deserves 
more respect and deserves more effort, nothing is more important than 
that business of all the people.
  We bemoan the lack of respect for Congress, while we need the 
greatest faith between the people of this country and their elected 
officials. We need the greatest faith, underline that, faith between 
each other here, if we are to accomplish what we are all about. We want 
to know that everyone here is working for the best long-term interests 
of the United States of America and not just trying to salve their own 
egos at the moment by making belittling remarks about others here or 
about the President.
  If we had a scale here and faith was on one end, doubt would be over 
here on the other. How do we move that scale toward faith? How do we 
restore faith? Not by casting insulting remarks at other officials. You 
have faith, you have confidence in our institutions, in our 
legislative, executive and judicial branches--we must have faith in 
Congress. We must do the things that will engender faith and confidence 
in Congress. We must do the things that will engender faith and 
confidence in the Presidency, whether Democrat or Republican, the 
office of the Presidency of the United States, the chief executive 
officer of our Nation. We must have faith and confidence in the Senate. 
We must have faith and confidence in Senators. We must have faith and 
confidence in each other if we are to accomplish our job.
  As Senator Byrd said, to use deprecating language toward each other 
or toward the President moves toward doubt; it moves toward doubt and 
dissension, and not toward that kind of faith that we need if we are to 
do our job. That just makes our problems even more intractable.
  We are all proud of our mothers, of course. I am proud of my mother. 
She has long since departed this world, but she used to have a lot of 
little homilies and a lot of little sayings. I still remember some of 
them today.
  When we, as kids, were being too critical of someone I remember my 

[[Page S18975]]
  mother saying this one, ``There is so much bad in the best of us, and 
so much good in the worst of us, it ill-behooves any of us to speak 
badly about the rest of us.''
  Maybe here on the Senate floor, when we get a little carried away 
sometimes back and forth, it gets very personal--as it has gotten too 
personal recently. Maybe we need to remember that. Here, where the 
business of all the people, the melding of ideas is supposed to take 
place, where the business of all the people is taking place on this 
floor, our conduct has to contribute to that, not detract from it.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Several Senators addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Abraham). Under the previous order, the 
Senator from Alaska is recognized.

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