[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 133 (Tuesday, September 24, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S11163]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   PAUL SIMON'S CONGRESSIONAL CAREER

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, there are a number of reasons we are 
grateful to see the end of the 104th Congress, but one reason I regret 
this ending is that it also marks the end of Paul Simon's distinguished 
career in Congress.
  I have had the privilege of working with Paul Simon in both the House 
and in the Senate. I have found him always to be an honest and decent 
man who loves his country very deeply. Perhaps what stands out about 
Paul Simon the most after his bow tie--and I must say we have all 
improved our looks and image substantially this afternoon by adopting 
his practice of wearing a bow tie--is his strongly developed sense of 
moral leadership. His parents were both Lutheran missionaries, his 
father, I am told, an idealist and his mother a pragmatist who handled 
all the family's expenses. From their combined influence, he grew into 
what he described as a pay-as-you-go Democrat.
  As a young man, Paul Simon did not want to be in government. He 
wanted to keep an eye on it and write about it. In 1948, he bought the 
struggling Troy, IL, Tribune, and at 19 became the Nation's youngest 
newspaper editor-publisher. He eventually built that paper into a chain 
of 14 newspapers.
  He interrupted his journalism career in an Army counterintelligence 
unit monitoring Soviet activities in Eastern Europe from 1951 to 1953. 
When he returned to journalism in 1954, he tried unsuccessfully to 
recruit candidates to run for public office. After hearing ``no'' one 
too many times, he finally decided at the age of 25 to run for the 
Illinois State Legislature. That was the beginning of a long and very 
distinguished career.
  Paul Simon served four 2-year terms in the Illinois House and two 4-
year terms in the Senate. He provided constituents with detailed 
reports on spending long before the passage of the disclosure laws. He 
was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974 and reelected 
four times. He joined the Senate in 1984. Fortunately for students of 
politics and for history, the old newspaper reporter in him never 
stopped working. Senator Simon is the author of 14 books and countless 
articles.
  In 1987, when he announced his candidacy for President, Paul Simon 
said, ``I seek the Presidency with a firm sense of who I am, what I 
stand for, and what I can and will do to advance the cause of this 
great Nation.''
  It is that same strong sense of who he is and what he stands for that 
has made Paul Simon such an invaluable asset to this body and to our 
Nation. It was in part the leadership of this pay-as-you-go Democrat 
that helped this Nation understand that we have a job to do in 
balancing the budget and that we have to do it the right way, without 
ripping apart America's safety net. I, and I know all of my colleagues, 
will miss Senator Simon's good humor. Unfortunately, I suspect I will 
not miss his good counsel because I am confident that Senator Simon 
will continue in his new career to write and to keep us on the right 
track, just as he has one way or the other for all of these years.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
  Ms. MOSELEY-BRAUN. Thank you, Mr. President.

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