[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 66 (Thursday, May 21, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H3629-H3630]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        REMARKS OF HON. ROBERT A. BRADY, NEW MEMBER OF THE HOUSE

  (Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To my dean from 
Pennsylvania, Congressman Murtha, I always will respect the fact that 
you will be my dean and I will follow you, along with my leader.
  I thank you, Bobby Borski and Chaka Fattah. I thank the other 
Congressmen Fox and Weldon from the other side of the aisle for those 
kind remarks.
  After all you have said, I should not say anything else because I 
probably will just louse it up, but I need to thank a few people.
  I am not here by myself. I am here with a lot of people that I 
brought, my family and my friends. But I am not standing here because 
of myself. I am standing here because of a lot of people had the faith 
to vote for me in this past reelection. Without labor, organized labor, 
which I am a part of, it would not have been able to be happening.
  I am also a city chairman. So with my fellow ward leaders and all my 
committee people that shared the faith and came out and voted for me, I 
need to thank them, and I need to thank a whole lot of people that 
helped me get here through the tough times.
  We had a couple campaign trail buddies running, as you know, from 
Congress, running throughout the district. It is a long and tedious 
thing to do. I just appreciate the Joel Johnsons, the Bobby Rebstocks, 
I do not want to get in trouble, but the Jimmy Harritys, the Steve 
Kaplans, the Phil Espositos, who was my motor guy. We had all kinds of 
vehicles running around. I want to thank him. He is our navigator, 
also.
  I want to thank my staff down in City Committee in the City of 
Philadelphia, Linda Matthews and Charlie Bernard, the Elmers, all the 
staff down there, special people, a fellow that you may know by the 
name of Buddy Cianfrani, who was a mentor and pushed me right on 
through in some bad times, and a young lady who is the chairperson of 
the African-American Ward Leaders by the name of Carol Campbell that I 
would be absolutely wrong and remiss if I did not thank her personally 
for all the things she has done for me through many, many years helping 
me get here.

                              {time}  1045

  There is an another gentleman, our City Comptroller by the name of 
Jonathan Saidel. He is the gentleman that keeps us loose. He is also my 
finance chairman, who put a whole lot of money there. He is sitting up 
there. Jonathan, I love you for all you have done. There have been some 
tough times, and he has been by my side many times. I just hope that I 
can continue to be here and be by your side.
  A lot was said about my candidacy. I had the fortune to bring a whole 
lot of people together from all different walks of life, different 
races and different creeds, the black clergy, the NAACP, the Jerry 
Mondessaires, the Senator Fumos.
  It was written in the press that it was remarkable that I could have 
people standing next to me at an announcement and standing next to me 
at a victory party that will probably never stand next to each other 
again. But I am going to work to try to make that happen.

[[Page H3630]]

  Without question, my family. My mother, I have to apologize for how I 
put her through three elections in the last six months. Between my 
younger brother becoming a judge, me winning a primary and the special 
election. Mom, I guess you are going to have to get used to it, because 
it is going to have to happen a couple more times. I hope to be here 
awhile.
  My wife Debra, who again, was the one that when you come home, as 
anybody knows, to your spouse, there is somebody there that is going to 
help you, that is going to ask you how your day was and get you out in 
the morning to start another day. So, Debra, I thank you and love you.
  To my children, Bobby and his wife, my daughter-in-law Maria, who 
stands behind me, as your children and your family stand behind me, 
they stood behind me.
  My lovely daughter, Kimberly, my little kindergarten teacher, I can 
never forget my Kimberly who says, ``Geez, dad, I am taking off Monday 
and Tuesday. I hope you can get sworn in on Wednesday,'' but it 
happened on Thursday, so she got a whole week off. So she is happy.
  For my mother-in-law and father-in-law for putting up with me, and my 
brother-in-law Rick, my brother Frankie, his wife and little Taylor. My 
sister-in-law, Roseann, and my brother Frankie. I hope I don't miss 
anybody, but they are family, they will understand.
  And I have two jewels. I have two jewels in my life. I have a little 
18 month old granddaughter by the name of Serena and a little four year 
old granddaughter by the name of Alexandra. They are my two jewels. She 
is up there laughing now. Hi, baby.
  They are interest on an investment, the grandchildren, and I love 
them dearly. When I look at them, I see my father, because my father 
fought a war for us to be here, got wounded a couple times for us to be 
here, and he cannot physically be here, but he is up there being here 
right now today.
  I know that I am honored to be here. I did not think I would be this 
humbled. It is hard to humble me in the city that I come from. They 
tried 10, 15 years ago, and it has not worked and I am pretty callous 
to it. But I am humble today because of what has happened.
  I thank all my colleagues, I thank all my old friends, I thank 
hopefully all my new friends, and I appreciate all the kind words, and 
I look forward to working with you. Sometimes you lead, sometimes you 
follow. It is a lot easier to follow. I do not care. I am a team 
player. I do not care if I have to pitch, catch, batboy, I just want to 
be on the team. As far as I am concerned, the team that I am on is the 
team of the United States of America.
  So thank you all, and I appreciate that.

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