[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 5 (Tuesday, February 3, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S302-S303]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           MARKING THE 65TH BIRTHDAY OF SENATOR PAUL SARBANES

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I would like today to pay tribute to one of 
my most esteemed colleagues on the occasion of his birthday. For, 
sixty-five years ago, in Salisbury, Maryland, two Greek immigrants 
named Spyros and Matina Sarbanes gave birth to a child, whom they named 
Paul. I, for one, have no doubt--although history does not provide 
confirmation of my conjecture--that within a few days, or perhaps 
weeks, of this event, young Paul had begun the earnest and impassioned 
learning that would distinguish him throughout his life.
  This learning has paid dividends throughout the life and career of 
Paul Sarbanes. It won him a scholarship to Princeton--from where he 
graduated Phi Beta Kappa--and earned him a Rhodes Scholarship. Thence, 
he proceeded to Harvard Law School and a prestigious clerkship with a 
federal appellate court judge. After conquering such mountains early 
on, he might have been forgiven for resting on his laurels, but these 
early triumphs proved to be simply prologue to further achievements. 
Senator Sarbanes' drive and his intelligence propelled him from a law 
firm to the Maryland House of Delegates, then on to the U.S. House, 
and, in 1976, to the U.S. Senate. How wonderfully appropriate that the 
year in which this country celebrated its bicentennial it should also 
witness, in the election of Senator Sarbanes, confirmation of the basic 
American tenet that any man--even the child of immigrants--can rise to 
the highest levels in this country! And who better than Senator 
Sarbanes to prove that the American meritocracy, which rewards 
extraordinary wisdom and diligence, endures?
  For over two decades, I have been privileged to work alongside 
Senator Sarbanes. I have learned in that time to put down whatever 
business I have before me and pay careful attention when this man 
speaks on the floor. For I know that whatever words issue forth from 
his mouth will be the result of careful consideration, intelligent 
analysis, and a nuanced balancing of the facts. These qualities 
distinguish Senator Sarbanes' remarks, and they are the reason why this 
man epitomizes for

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me the best that the legal profession has to offer. If every lawyer 
would only emulate the reasonableness and wisdom of Senator Sarbanes, 
the country's legal profession would be held in much higher esteem than 
it is today!
  Mr. President, I am sure I speak for all my colleagues when I wish my 
esteemed colleague Senator Sarbanes the happiest of birthdays. The 
words of Senator Sarbanes' classical forebear, Aristophanes, seem 
particularly appropriate today: ``Blest the man who possesses a keen 
intelligent mind.

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