[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 85 (Tuesday, June 11, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6046-S6048]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            MORNING BUSINESS

  Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that there now be 
a period for the transaction of morning business with Senators 
permitted to speak therein for up to 5 minutes each until the hour of 
3:30 p.m.
  Mr. EXON. Reserving the right to object, and I do not intend to 
object. Is it the Senator's intention that we would go to the budget 
then at 3:30? Is that the plan?
  Mr. LOTT. Madam President, if I can respond to the distinguished 
Senator from Nebraska, it is our hope that the Senate could consume 
much of the 10 hours allocated to the budget conference report this 
afternoon. That is provided, of course, under the statute. We would be 
able to set the final vote on the conference report for midafternoon on 
Wednesday, in all probability. Certainly, we are now consulting with 
the Democratic leader, and he is making sure that that is agreeable.
  We hope to have a unanimous-consent request on that in, hopefully, a 
few minutes. Between now and 3:30, since a number of Senators did not 
have an opportunity to speak this morning in tribute to Senator Dole, 
we hope that can be done in this hour. Then we hope to begin on the 
budget resolution.
  Mr. EXON. I have no objection whatsoever. This Senator was one of 
those, also, who wishes to speak. I will be seeking 5 minutes of my own 
time for that subject during the next hour.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

[[Page S6047]]



                      TRIBUTE TO SENATOR BOB DOLE

  Mr. LOTT. Madam President, there is no question that some of the most 
eloquent speeches I have heard since I have been in the Senate were 
presented this morning by Senators on both sides of the aisle as a 
tribute to our good friend and majority leader, Bob Dole. They really 
were very impressive in terms of the relationship that Senators have 
had with Senator Dole and their love for him and for this institution. 
Many Senators have enjoyed working with Senator Dole and have learned a 
great deal from him. Certainly, I am one of those that has been 
studying at the feet of Bob Dole. It has been something to behold. He 
is truly a master of how to get things done. We can all learn from 
that. I hope that I am one that has learned and will remember those 
lessons.
  I served in the House for a number of years after having worked for a 
Democratic Congressman named Bill Colmer, the chairman of the Rules 
Committee. Until this very day, when I remember the lessons I should 
have learned from that old gentleman, I do well. When I forget those 
lessons, I usually get in trouble. So I think that as we go through 
life and as we go through political life, as we work in Government, and 
as we go through our daily activities in the Senate, there are certain 
giants like Bob Dole that we can and should all learn from.
  Madam President, there is a little known custom, I guess, in the 
Senate for Members to carve their names in the drawers of their desks. 
In fact, when constituents come on the floor when we are not in 
session, that is one of the things they find most interesting. They 
pull the drawers out and see who signed these desks.
  When you look into some of these desks, you find the great--and 
sometimes not so great--names of the past. They are a veritable 
rollcall of our country's history.
  In 28 years in the Senate, Bob Dole did more than make his mark upon 
a congressional desk. He made his mark upon this institution, not just 
its legislation, but more importantly, its character.
  He devoted most of his career to the Senate, but not because this 
Chamber and its business were an end in itself. For Bob Dole, serving 
the Senate was serving his country.
  That service took precedence over most other considerations in his 
life.
  Indeed, it took precedence over his Presidential campaign--until 
today.
  The reason Bob Dole will not be with us on the Senate floor after 
today is no great secret.
  The reason is that he was convinced he would better serve his country 
by restoring leadership to its Presidency than by handling the day to 
day affairs of the Congress.
  We all know it was hard for him to leave, and it was hard for us to 
see him leave. It affected us all, and it reminded us once again who we 
are and what we are about in this institution. Those who really know 
Bob Dole know that he is leaving not out of ambition for higher rank, 
but out of determination to finish the fight and be in a position to do 
all that he can do for his country.
  That fight, in terms of his country's future, is every bit as 
important as the fight which gravely injured the young Bob Dole in 
1944.
  There are some who think of duty as a burden, heavy to bear and best 
shrugged off onto someone else.
  There are others who embrace duty, and carry it proudly, and do not 
put it down until the journey is done.
  In walking out of this Chamber today, Bob Dole carries with him a 
lifetime of duty.
  As we saw him exit this door, we all felt an emotional surge, and 
every Member of this Senate knows he will not put that responsibility 
and duty down.
  No one would understand better than Bob that not every Senator wants 
him to succeed in his present mission. Indeed, a goodly part of this 
body will move Heaven and Earth to prevent that success.
  That is not perfidy. It is democracy.
  It is something Bob Dole went to war to defend, and something he 
still can appreciate more than most of us.
  But I dare say, despite the political and partisan divisions on this 
Senate floor, as we quite often experience, all of us understand 
something historic is happening here today.
  Something none of us will soon forget.
  It brings to my mind two other reluctant departures in our Nation's 
past.
  The first would be Washington's reluctant leaving of Mount Vernon to 
assume a position he did not seek, but which his countrymen insisted he 
take.
  The second would be Lee's agonized departure from his post of 
military honor to fulfill what he considered a higher duty.
  Were he here, Bob Dole would modestly dismiss any comparison with 
Washington or Lee--or any other of American's great statesmen of the 
past.
  He would rather let the future judge such things, and so should we.
  Whatever the outcome of this year, whatever the course of its 
conflicts and controversies, the future holds a place for Bob Dole as a 
giant of the Senate, a man set apart from most by a quiet passion for 
his country that we are only now beginning to understand.
  But Lord willing, we will benefit from it for years to come.
  I yield the floor, Mr. President.
  Mr. EXON addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coats). The Senator from Nebraska.
  Mr. EXON. Mr. President, I thank the Chair. I wish to associate 
myself with the remarks by the distinguished Senator from Mississippi.
  I just want to say a few words about my friend Bob Dole. I suspect my 
feelings are not significantly different by what has been thought and 
what has been said by my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. So 
aside from the Bob Dole that we all know so very, very well, I just 
want to say that I was pleased to be here and to hear that excellent 
speech that Senator Dole gave as his farewell address in the U.S. 
Senate. It was sad in lots of ways, and yet it was so reassuring to see 
someone of the integrity, the ability, the character, and the good 
nature of Bob Dole spelled out in that speech so very, very well. I 
hope that many, many people in the United States heard that speech by 
my friend and colleague, the man from Kansas.
  I have worked with him so very, very long on so many issues. Many 
times we have been on the same side, but on many of the items we have 
been on opposite sides. But never, as Senator Dole mentioned in his 
speech this morning, has he ever, to my knowledge, violated that 
cardinal rule of the U.S. Senate--unwritten, which is just as 
effective: A man's word or a woman's word is their bond. In all of 
these nearly 18 years that I have had the pleasure of my association 
with Bob Dole, I have never known Bob even to give a hint of breaking 
his word, because if there was ever a man in the U.S. Senate for whom 
we all know his word is his bond, that is Bob Dole.
  On a personal note, I just want to say when I saw Bob walk out after 
his address, it took me back to times in all of our lives when there 
have been breakups. I suppose the first was when we graduated from 
grade school and that old gang of ours broke up and went on through our 
educational process. And certainly it is true. When you left the 
service of the United States of America, that old gang was broken up. 
That old gang that Bob Dole was with was suddenly broken up when he 
nearly gave his life in combat, in defense of the national security 
interests of the United States of America and the free world. But I 
thought of that breakup when I saw Bob walk out that door an hour or so 
ago.
  Bob Dole meant so much to me because, despite our differences from 
time to time, we always had an excellent personal working relationship. 
He came into Nebraska on two or three occasions to support my opponent 
in one of my races. But never did Bob Dole say anything bad about Jim 
Exon, even though he could have probably found some legitimate things 
that he could and maybe should have said. But that was not Bob's way. 
Bob came into Nebraska, and he campaigned for my Republican opponent--
not against Jim Exon. I think that is the mark of not only a great 
statesman but a very effective leader, which he was of his party as 
majority leader on that side, but also someone that you could be truly 
proud of and call your friend.
  Little known outside the Senate, I suspect, was Bob's strongest 
characteristic, and that was his sense of

[[Page S6048]]

humor. I am not sure that the public at large has understood that. But 
I have had an ongoing relationship--very friendly--with Bob Dole on 
many, many occasions. In fact, this year when he was running for 
President of the United States, I suggested to him--and he knew it was 
facetious--that I might consider a draft to be his Vice Presidential 
running mate, if he was interested in that. Bob knows that I am a 
Democrat--always have been and always will be, and we had lots of jokes 
about that. But over the years of friendship, over the years of serving 
on very tough issues, sometimes we were maybe at sword's point, one 
would think, when we were debating a measure of some importance on the 
floor of the U.S. Senate. Bob Dole never lost his sense of humor. He 
never forgot his sense of humor. And I think that is what helped carry 
him through probably that life-threatening wound that he received in 
battle and probably through some of the more heated debates that have 
taken place here on the Senate floor. I have never seen Bob Dole do 
anything but smile when someone said something or told him something 
that he thought was humor.

  So I am saddened by the fact that a coworker for whom I have great 
respect, has made a choice that I think was the right choice for him to 
make, especially with regard to the heavy responsibility that he 
carries for his party, and he will carry in the Presidential election 
this year. In that regard, maybe I can sum up my feelings, friendship, 
and understanding with Bob Dole by a statement that I made to him in 
one of our more humorous conversations maybe 6 months ago right in the 
heat of those very tough Republican primaries for President of the 
United States. I said to Bob Dole, ``You know, Bob, if we have to have 
a Republican President''--then I repeated it--``if we have to have a 
Republican President, I hope it is you.'' People that do not understand 
humor might think that was a cutting thing for Jim Exon to say, but Bob 
Dole knew what I was saying. Bob Dole knows that myself and all, 
likely, on both sides of the aisle respect not only the man's talent 
but the man's sense of responsibility and his sense of humor which has 
endeared him to those of us on both sides of the aisle.
  Godspeed, Bob Dole, to you and your wonderful wife, Elizabeth. You 
are a great couple. And whatever the future holds, we will always hold 
you in high esteem.
  I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.
  Mr. HATCH addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.

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