[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 43 (Tuesday, March 26, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S2886]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          ED MUSKIE: A TRIBUTE

  Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I would like to take a moment to pay 
tribute to a colleague and friend of mine who has just recently passed 
away. To those of us who were here during the sixties and seventies, 
Edmund Muskie was more than a fellow legislator, he was a model of what 
a Senator should be. He was well liked and respected by all, and he 
listened to his constituents closely, and he effected change on their 
behalf.
  To put it simply, Ed Muskie was the best. Today, with all the talk 
about the Government being too big, and all the public scorn for the 
establishment, it is easy to lose sight of the optimism that used to be 
a driving force of politics. Senator Muskie embodied that optimism; He 
looked upon government as an opportunity, as a solution to problems. 
Characteristically, he acted on these beliefs to get things done. He 
led the demand for fiscal responsibility. As the first chairman of the 
Senate Budget Committee in 1974, he virtually created the budget 
process. He will also be remembered as a great environmental 
legislator. The Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act: these were not a 
part of Muskie's political agenda due to pressure from lobbyists or 
special interest groups. They were things that he believed were 
necessary, and so he made them happen.
  I knew Ed Muskie long before I came to the Senate, and he always felt 
things keenly. I used to joke with him about what I called his 
righteous indignation, but I always respected the moral conviction and 
strength that lay behind it. Senator Muskie detested the influence of 
lobbies and partisanship, and what they were doing to politics. He was 
in government to do a good job, not to play games. He was--and in this 
city, this is a great compliment--a man who got things done. The 
principles that he lived by came through in his work, whether as a 
Senator, a Secretary of State or as a lawyer and statesman. He knew the 
importance of character and of listening to the voter.
  In 1970, Senator Muskie gave a memorable speech in which he said: 
``There are only two kinds of politics. They are not radical and 
reactionary, or conservative and liberal, or even Democratic and 
Republican. They are only the politics of fear and the politics of 
trust.'' As we head into another election year and another century, 
these are words to remember. Ed Muskie was a champion of the politics 
of trust. We will remember him fondly.

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