[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 11 (Thursday, February 12, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S704]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    SENATOR SPECTER'S 68TH BIRTHDAY

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, it is an unfortunate fact of life in today's 
Senate that, as Members go about the business of fulfilling their 
duties, it is increasingly difficult to find time in our hectic 
schedules to acknowledge the personal milestones of our colleagues. I 
intend to rectify this situation in part today by taking just a few 
minutes to congratulate my friend from Pennsylvania, Senator Arlen 
Specter, on the occasion of his 68th birthday.
  Oh, Mr. President, only to be 68 again. Oliver Wendell Holmes said, 
``Oh, just to be 70 again.'' Well, I feel very much in that same mode.
  Born in the prairie town of Wichita, Kansas, at the start of the 
Great Depression, Arlen Specter, through the diligent application of 
his intellect and his tenacity, has become the 1,750th individual to 
serve this great nation as a United States Senator.
  Mr. President, Senators serve with Presidents. I hope Senators will 
remember that. Senators don't serve under Presidents. Senators serve 
with Presidents. President is another office, a high office, indeed, in 
the executive branch. But Senator Specter is the 1,750th individual to 
serve this great Nation as United States Senator, and he has served 
with Presidents in both parties.
  Woodrow Wilson reportedly said, ``The profession I chose was 
politics; the profession I entered was law. I entered the one because I 
thought it would lead to the other.'' Mr. President, I do not know if, 
in Senator Specter's case, he came to the same conclusion or if 
politics was for him a natural calling, but whatever the case, the 
melding of politics and law in the person of this thoughtful, soft-
spoken Pennsylvanian has resulted in an inspired result for the people 
of the Keystone State.
  A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University Law 
School, Arlen Specter began his remarkable public career as an 
assistant district attorney in Philadelphia, where he won the first 
conviction in the Nation of labor racketeers, fought consumer fraud, 
and relentlessly prosecuted corrupt public officials. That willingness 
to take on the tough fights, no matter where they might lead, has 
become the hallmark of the senior Senator from Pennsylvania, Mr. 
Specter.
  But dogged pursuit of righting criminal wrongs is only one facet of 
Arlen Specter's many-faceted character. As a Member of the 
Appropriations Committee in the Senate, Senator Arlen Specter has 
worked long hours, and with great determination, in an effort to see 
that Federal dollars are wisely usedto combat breast cancer, prostate 
cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer's disease. Indeed, I believe it is 
fair to say that my friend from Pennsylvania takes a second seat to no 
one when it comes to his commitment to doing all that he can to provide 
a better, healthier life not only for those whom he represents in 
Pennsylvania, but also for all Americans.
  Mr. President, it is this fortuitous combination of legal acumen, 
tenacity, and compassion for the difficulties of others that has made 
Arlen Specter a highly-respected Member of this body, one whose counsel 
is so valuable to all who know him and work with him. As Henri Frederic 
Amiel noted in his Journal on April 7, 1851, ``man becomes man only by 
the intelligence, but he is man only by the heart.'' Senator Specter is 
a superior example of what Henri Frederic Amiel meant by that 
pronouncement. So I offer my friend and colleague my heartfelt 
congratulations, and also my thanks to him for his wisdom, his 
character, and his decency on this day which marks the beginning of his 
68th--almost the beginning--I suppose it is the beginning of his 68th 
year. Oh, but to be 68 again.
  So I say to my friend from Pennsylvania:

       The hours are like a string of pearls,
       The days like diamonds rare,
       The moments are the threads of gold,
       That bind them for our wear.
       So may the years that come to you
       Such wealth and good contain
       That every moment, hour and day
       Be like a golden chain.

  Mr. President, I thank my friend from Montana for his kindness in 
yielding to me. I yield the floor.
  Mr. BAUCUS addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana.
  Mr. BAUCUS. I join my colleague in congratulating our friend, Senator 
Specter from Pennsylvania, on his 68th birthday. I have watched Senator 
Specter over the years, and I can say I do not think there is a Senator 
with a finer legal mind than the Senator from Pennsylvania, 
particularly from a criminal law perspective, constitutional law 
perspective, and a prosecutorial perspective as a former prosecutor in 
Pennsylvania.
  He brings to this body tremendous experience and tremendous judgment. 
And I join my colleague in wishing our colleague from Pennsylvania the 
very best returns on his 68th birthday.

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