[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 140 (Wednesday, October 2, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12155-S12157]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            ON MY RETIREMENT

  Mr. BRADLEY. Mr. President, I always preferred moving to standing 
still. As a small forward with the New York Knicks, as U.S. Senator 
from New Jersey, I think I have had two of the best jobs in the world. 
Each kept me on the move, each offered a unique perspective on America, 
and in each there came a time to go.
  Tomorrow, the Senate will probably adjourn and in a few months I will 
be leaving the Senate. I believe that U.S. Senator is the best elective 
job in the world. I thank the people of New Jersey who gave me their 
votes and their trust; each of my three senatorial races drew me closer 
to them and forced me to grow in new and different ways. Election day 
is democracy's most intimate and important ritual. For all the polling 
and media and political strategy, I believe that there is an essence in 
any campaign that conveys the bond between the candidate and the 
electorate on that particular election day. Ultimately, it is the bond 
that determines the outcome.
  For nearly 17 years, almost 18 years now, my most memorable moments 
have come from the people that I have met. I thank those New Jerseyans 
who told me their stories through their letters and during our 
encounters along the shore, at commuter terminals and diners and town 
meetings and countless other settings. It is from the stories of 
people's lives that I have been moved and that I gained hesitancy about 
universal solutions. It is from their stories that I saw what a small 
role Government plays in most people's lives and, paradoxically, it is 
where I felt the impact of decisions taken here in Washington. I have 
received much more inspiration, insight, and good cheer than I could 
ever say. They reminded me daily of the resilience and the power of the 
human spirit.

  Their New Jersey stories gave me substance and emotion, and lent both 
substance and emotion to abstractions about democracy. Now each of 
their stories has become a part of my own story. I have tried to listen 
to those I serve while using judgment that I believe they elected me to 
exercise. Sometimes they vented their anger and frustration, and just 
by my listening,

[[Page S12156]]

they seemed to feel better. I have included young New Jerseyans in my 
activities as a Senator because democratic participation must burst 
forth anew in each generation, like flowers in the spring. Unless the 
seeds are watered there will be no blossoms.
  I have paid attention to the religious community in my State because 
I believe the right policy always starts with the right values. I have 
respected those who disagreed with me, especially when they took time 
to write long letters detailing their disagreements.
  Flying north from Washington in a small plane as the Sun is setting, 
you reach a point where the sunlight on the Delaware River turns it 
into a metallic-looking band extending all the way up from Trenton to 
the Delaware Water Gap. And there, lying before you, is the New Jersey 
Peninsula, bordered on the west by the Delaware River and on the east 
by the Atlantic. New Jersey offers unexpected beauty, it gives 
surprising economic opportunity and reveals vital human diversity.
  I have achieved greater understanding of the world with all its 
mixture of religions and ethnicities by simply representing New Jersey. 
I have become deeply attached to the Jersey shore, to the mountains of 
the northwest, the flat farmland of the south, and even to certain 
places on the Garden State Parkway and the turnpike. These New Jersey 
places have rooted me and given my life a sense of permanence. It has 
been an honor to represent our State in the U.S. Senate.
  I was not in an elective body before coming to the Senate. I had no 
frame of reference. And in the early months, I remember sitting in the 
Cloakroom one night late around 2 a.m. and looking around at my fellow 
Senators in that Cloakroom. One was reading, and one was pacing, and 
one was telling a joke, and one was sitting quietly, and one was 
arguing. I thought to myself, ``This isn't a lot different than the 
Knicks locker room.'' In fact, it isn't. Both team play and successful 
legislating are about getting different people from different 
backgrounds with different personal agendas to come together and agree 
on a common objective, and then work toward it.
  During my time in the Senate, I have tried to balance the private 
interests and the public interests, the rights of property owners and 
the needs of society, the big players and the forgotten players. I 
haven't always pleased everyone, but I have tried to be consistent on 
the big issues, such as economy, race, America's role in the world.
  I have also tried to take the long view, often passing up an 
occasional headline, to make sure when I spoke I knew what I was 
talking about. Questions of structure, whether on taxes or trade or the 
environment, always interested me more than issues of marginal gain or 
questions of blame or strategies for partisan political advantage.
  I am saddened on occasion when the media and politicians ourselves 
convey that politics is mean, cheap and dirty; that what we hold in 
common as Americans is somehow less than what we harbor in our hearts 
and minds as individuals. I have never believed that.
  Commentators have remarked that so many Senators are leaving this 
year that somehow the Senate will have lost its moderate pragmatic 
center. I strongly disagree with that. Many talented Senators with 
distinguished records are leaving, but the Senate remains, and power in 
the Senate rests in the middle. Future Senators will be no less 
interested in exercising power than do those who are departing. 
Therefore, they will head to the center where knowing what you are 
talking about, listening carefully, seeking common ground are the 
winning attributes. The Senate does not reward extremes of either right 
or left. It rewards competence.
  It is not possible, though, to sum up my 18 years in the Senate in a 
few words, particularly when I recently took 427 pages to do it in a 
book. But above all, the Senate is a human institution, shaped by the 
talents and values and personalities of the Senators who are here at 
any one time. I owe much to those fellow Senators over the years, to 
mentors, such as Scoop Jackson and Russell Long, to my able New Jersey 
colleague and good friend, Frank Lautenberg, to Robert Byrd, to Pat 
Moynihan, to Jack Danforth, to Al Simpson, to Bill Cohen, to Dick 
Lugar, to Nancy Kassebaum, to Paul Sarbanes, to George Mitchell, to 
Wendell Ford, to Tom Eagleton, to David Pryor, to Howell Heflin, to Sam 
Nunn, and many, many others.
  Over the years, I have been lucky to be assisted by competent staff 
in ways that are important for a Senate office. I always regarded the 
newest intern in the mail room to be as relevant to the mission of 
representing the people of New Jersey as the most senior legislative 
aide. All of us were here for the same purpose. I gave my trust to 
many, many members of my staff during my 18 years, and they honored 
that trust. They represented me in countless meetings with other Senate 
and House staffers and appointees of four administrations. They 
always made sure I had the information I needed to be prepared, they 
amplified my voice, extended my reach, they knew my values, and used 
their own creativity to serve those same values.

  The nature of a good Senator-staff/staff-Senator relationship lies 
somewhere between the realms of family and team, with the mutual caring 
and sense of purpose that we expect respectively from each. I am 
grateful to those ``family'' members and ``teammates'' who have 
enriched my time in the Senate with their intelligence, humanity, sense 
of humor and, above all else, hard, hard work.
  We didn't win every battle with the bureaucracy on behalf of 
individual New Jerseyans, but we held our own and, in the process, gave 
Government a little more of a human face. We didn't adopt every 
amendment we wanted, but we were in the game, right there in the 
center, in the middle, where power is exercised and accomplishments 
accumulated in the U.S. Senate. By and large, and above all else, I 
believe those who served on my staff took public service seriously and 
believed they could make a difference in the life of our State and our 
Nation, and I believe we have.
  So, Mr. President, I am leaving the Senate, but I am not leaving 
public life. The quest for a decent life and good wages for all 
Americans is shaped by many influences that work on many levels. The 
imperative to engage the world flows through many channels; the fight 
for justice occurs in many places.
  I will continue to speak out and call it like I see it on race, on 
America's role in the world, on the economic plight of the middle class 
and the poor, and on the need for thoroughgoing reform that will remove 
special interest from elections and reduce their influence on 
Government. In the coming years, I will not lessen my efforts. To the 
contrary, I will increase them.
  So, as I leave the familiar surroundings of the U.S. Senate, I don't 
know what the future will bring, but I recall the words of Robert 
Frost:

     The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
     But I have promises to keep,
     And miles to go before I sleep;
     And miles to go before I sleep.

  I yield the floor.
  Mrs. BOXER addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Thomas). The Senator from California.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, before the Senator from New Jersey leaves 
the floor, I just want to thank him for coming to the floor to really 
put before us a very moving tribute to the Senate from the perspective 
of one great Senator. As he mentioned those greats that he looked up to 
when he came to the Senate, on the day that I leave here--and, of 
course, you never know if it is going to be voluntary or if it is going 
to be something you plan, as the Senator planned his departure--but 
whatever day that is for me, Senator Bradley's name will be on my lips.
  I think he has just the right combination of hope and realism and 
intellect and heart and courage.

  You will be missed, I say to my friend. For me to have had the 
privilege, in too short a time really, to work with you on 
environmental issues and children's issues, campaign finance, and other 
important legislation, I have always looked to you for leadership and 
for guidance. You do have many, many miles to go before you even take a 
nap, let alone sleep. Every one of us in the U.S. Senate--and really 
all the people in the country--I know I speak for California when I 
say--you are a hero to so many of my constituents--that we wish you 
well

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from the bottom of our hearts, and we look forward to working with you. 
I know I certainly do.

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