[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 40 (Wednesday, April 1, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E544-E545]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              HON. JOHN L. BURTON: STATE SENATE PRESIDENT

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 1, 1998

  Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, it may still come as news to 
some members of the House that our former colleague, the Hon. John L. 
Burton of San Francisco, has recently been unanimously elected the 
President of the California State Senate, elevating him to one of the 
highest elective positions in our state.
  John Burton, as all who know or have served with him know, is an 
extraordinarily gifted legislator, a deeply committed public servant, 
and very much his own man. There has not been a more dedicated or 
unrepentant spokesperson for working people, for children, for the 
poor, for those living on society's margin, than Johnny Burton.
  His elevation to Senate President caps a remarkable and inspirational 
career. It also demonstrates that we can disagree, even strongly, but 
retain the personal relationships and trust that are integral to the 
operation of a successful legislative body. When John Burton set out to 
accomplish something on the floor of the House, whether it was 
expanding food stamp

[[Page E545]]

benefits or protecting the Point Reyes seashore, he was unmatched in 
knowing how to make the inter- and intra-party contacts that led to 
success.
  His return to the state Legislature in 1988 was welcomed by Democrats 
and Republicans alike, because all recognized that here was a 
consummate politician who knew how to make policy happen and who spoke 
with a candor and frankness unmatched in Sacramento or in Washington. 
Mark Shields, one of our most respected political observers, recently 
wrote a wonderful column about John Burton's election as Senate 
President that every member of the House deserves to read. Those who 
knew John here will immediately recognize him; those who did not have 
that pleasure will instantly know him.

                         A California Comeback

                           (By Mark Shields)

       Sacramento, Calif.--You may already have heard the joyless 
     laughter that follows the line: George Washington was the 
     president who could never tell a lie; Richard Nixon was the 
     president who could never tell the truth; and Bill Clinton is 
     the president who cannot tell the difference.
       Well here in California's capital city, the second most 
     powerful position in state government--that of president pro 
     tempore of the State Senate--has just been won in a 32 to 0 
     vote by a blunt, profane, quick-tempered and unreconstructed 
     liberal Democrat from San Francisco who was elected to the 
     State Assembly in 1964, to the U.S. House in 1974 and who, in 
     1982, left Congress to seek treatment for cocaine and alcohol 
     addiction.
       What makes John Burton so appealing in today's politics of 
     slippery hedging and too-clever evasiveness is the man's 
     barefaced candor. U.S. Rep. James Rogan, R-Calif., who served 
     with and voted against Burton in the California Assembly, 
     confesses: ``John Burton is just a man of incredible 
     integrity. . . . I love him because he is the most honest 
     liberal I've ever know, He really feels, he really bleeds, 
     for the underprivileged.''
       Rogan remembered the night in the Assembly when Burton 
     single-handedly stopped a Republican-backed bill to 
     criminalize the use of cocaine by pregnant women. Burton 
     spoke in stark terms of his own addiction, of the advantages 
     he had as a professional and a member of Congress for 
     treatment at Bethesda and Walter Reed.
       He told of the daily battle the recovering addict must wage 
     against the demons and of how much more lonely and terrifying 
     it is for the poor addict: ``You don't kick it until you die. 
     You have two choices. Either you die clean or you die 
     dirty.''
       As John Jacobs wrote in ``A Rage for Justice,'' his truly 
     masterful biography of John Burton's late brother, Phil, who 
     was arguably the most influential member of Congress ever 
     from California, ``Somewhere in his (John's) mind, he seized 
     on the image of his teenage daughter, Kim, and the thought of 
     her gave him the strength to begin his long, painful 
     recovery. Kim gave him back his life. He gave Kim back her 
     father.''
       John Burton, who has been both clean and sober for 15 years 
     now, won back his State Assembly seat in 1988 with the strong 
     backing of his friend of 40 years, now San Francisco Mayor 
     Willie Brown. He was elected to the Senate in 1996. Happily, 
     he has not mellowed. His language could still make a long-
     shoreman blush. His ability to employ forms of a single four 
     letter word as verb, noun, adjective, gerund, participle, 
     prefix, suffix and even infix is truly remarkable. He does 
     not delete expletives.
       Pleased, almost humbled, by the confidence of his 
     colleagues, Burton questions what all the praise about his 
     integrity and the keeping of his word says about the state of 
     politics today. ``When I grew up, all you had was your word. 
     It was a given that you never went back on your word. It 
     should be that way.''
       In an era of carefully crafted non-responses released by 
     elected officeholders who echo the findings of focus groups 
     and then deploy spin doctors, Burton is refreshing. Another 
     old adversary and good friend, former GOP State Senate Leader 
     Bill Campbell, explains that appeal: ``Johnny Burton has 
     great credibility because you and everyone else knows where 
     he stands.''
       Where Burton stands politically is where he has always 
     stood. His politics is personal, liberal and decidedly 
     untrendy. He continually embraces the poor, workers, the 
     stranger, the despised--all of those living on the outskirts 
     of hope. Burton fights to prevent the rich from getting too 
     greedy, and to make sure that the poor and middle class enjoy 
     more economic security and receive their share of this 
     society's wealth.
       ``I don't get this `New Democrat' b-- s--,'' rails Burton. 
     ``There are only so many ways you can feed hungry people, or 
     get jobs for people who don't have them, and get kids a good 
     education.''
       When he took the oath of office as Senate President Pro 
     Tempore, John Burton thanked his daughter and quoted the 
     words of American composer Jerome Kern:
       Nothing's impossible I have found,
       for when you find yourself on the ground
       you pick yourself up, dust yourself off,
       and start all over again.''
       Whoever said there are no second acts in American life 
     never met John Burton.

     

                          ____________________