[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 141 (Friday, October 9, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12148-S12150]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              REFLECTIONS

  Mr. COATS. Mr. President, the end of the 105th Congress marks the 
beginning of my transition from Senator to

[[Page S12149]]

citizen. This ends 24 years for me of public service: Two in the U.S. 
Army, four as a legislative assistant and district director for then-
Congressman Dan Quayle, and 18 in the Congress. While I look forward to 
life after politics, I know how much I will miss this place and its 
people, and so I want to acknowledge some debts.
  I want to acknowledge the privilege of serving under two remarkable 
Republican leaders and one Democrat majority leader, all of whom I hold 
a great deal of respect. Senator Mitchell was majority leader when I 
arrived. He gave me nothing but the utmost courtesy, fairness and 
respect. I have a great deal of respect for him in the way he conducted 
this Senate. Senator Dole became my friend and mentor. His life is a 
tribute to a true patriot and to someone whose commitment to public 
service, I think, is nearly unequal. Our current leader, Senator Lott, 
is someone who is a dear friend, someone who I greatly respect, and I 
think certainly has a great future as majority leader.
  There are many others that have made a deep impression on me and 
provided friendship and support in ways that I will never be able to 
adequately acknowledge: The senior Senator from Indiana, whose lifetime 
of public service serves as a model to many; my staff, who have 
faithfully and tirelessly served. I have always said good staff makes 
for good Senators. I don't know if I fit the quality of a good Senator, 
but I know I had a good staff. Any failings on my part are not due to 
my staff, they are due to me. They have been exceptional. I think they 
are the best Senate staff assembled. I say that for the very few who 
are left that have not secured employment. Some of you are passing up 
great opportunities if you don't grab them.
  I have had three very, very able administrative assistants, chiefs of 
staff: David Hoppe, who now serves as the floor's chief of staff and 
served with me for my first 4 years; David Gribbin, who many of you 
know, assistant secretary of staff for Dick Cheney for many, many years 
in the House; and now Sharon Soderstrom. All have been exceptional 
chiefs of staff. They have assembled a wonderful staff.
  The Senate support team: All those who man the desks and work the 
cloakroom and make sure we vote on time; the guards who protect us and 
make sure we are safe in our jobs; the staff who serve us, and the 
people who make this place work, they are a family. They have treated 
me like part of the family. I have tried to treat them as part of the 
family. They make it possible for us to do so many things and they 
certainly deserve our acknowledgment.
  Our Chaplain, who has meant so much to me from a spiritual 
perspective, and my colleagues, my friends, who I can't begin to thank; 
those who share my ideals and have voted with me and those who don't 
but who have engaged in respectful, meaningful dialog in debate, and 
who, at the end of the debate, we have been able to meet at the center 
aisle, shake hands, acknowledge, ``Well done, we will get you next 
time,'' or ``See you at the next debate?''--all of those mean a great 
deal to me. I come from here with many, many memories.
  I want to thank my wife for her love and support and sacrifice. She 
is the best mother that any three children could ever have had. She has 
been a father many times when I haven't been there to do the job as a 
father. My children have been patient and had stolen moments which I 
will never be able to recover. I thank my colleagues, as I said, those 
who have shared ideals and those who we had honorable and honest 
disagreement. Finally, the people of Indiana who have seen fit to elect 
me many times to the Congress and twice to the Senate, thank you for 
giving me a privilege beyond my ability to earn the privilege of their 
trust, the honor of their votes.

  In times of change you become reflective, and it is nice to think 
about your accomplishments. It is also a time to reflect on unfinished 
business, business that I hope will help shape the direction of this 
Congress that some have indicated an interest in, and hopefully others 
will pick up that interest.
  By constitutional design, the measure of success in the Senate, I 
think, is different from other parts of government. We are employed to 
take a longer view, insulated from the rush of hours to see the needs 
of future years. This is the theory. In practice, the pace of politics 
makes this very different, very difficult. This has been the greatest 
source of personal frustration during my years in this institution, 
that we have not spent nearly enough time dealing with the larger 
issues that face us, things that will matter down the road, topics that 
will be chapters in American history, not footnotes in the 
Congressional Record.
  If you allow me the privilege, I will briefly mention three of those 
matters that I trust will remain central to the questions of our time.
  All of you know of my interest in the issue of life. I believe there 
is no higher call of government than to protect the most defenseless 
among us. There is no greater honor in this Senate than to use our 
voice to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. Perhaps 
uniquely among our deliberations, the cause of life is informed and 
ennobled by a simple truth: Humanity is not an achievement. It is an 
endowment, and that that endowment is made by a Creator who gives 
inalienable rights, first among them the right to life. This is a 
founding principle of our political tradition. It is the teaching of 
our moral heritage. And it is the demand of our conscience.
  Abraham Lincoln wrote of our Founders:

       This was their majestic interpretation of the economy of 
     the universe. This was their lofty, and wise, and noble 
     understanding of the justice of the Creator to his creatures. 
     . . . In their enlightened belief, nothing stamped with the 
     divine image and likeness was sent into the world to be 
     trodden on. . . . They grasped not only the whole race of man 
     then living, but they reached forward and seized upon the 
     farthest posterity. They erected a beacon to guide their 
     children, and their children's children, and the countless 
     myriads who should inhabit the Earth in other ages.

  My question is, Will that beacon shine for all our children, those 
born and yet to be born? Or will we, in the name of personal liberty, 
stamp out the divine image and likeness of the most defenseless of all? 
I believe it is one of the central questions of our time.
  I know we are divided on that issue. I hope, though, that we would 
all put aside some of the harsh rhetoric and continue to engage in the 
discussion about the meaning and the value of life and what our duties 
and responsibilities are to protect that life, to expand the ever-
widening circle of inclusion that our great democracy is known for: 
bringing women, the defenseless, the handicapped, African-Americans and 
minorities within this circle of protection in our democracy. And I 
believe--my personal view, and I hope one we would certainly debate and 
discuss--that extends to the unborn.
  Secondly, another great issue that I believe demands our continued 
attention is the long-term strength of our Nation, the resource and 
planning that we devote to the defense of liberty. Here we are, not 
weak as a nation, but I fear that we are on a trajectory toward 
weakness--that our power and authority are being spent and not 
accumulated.
  It has been one of the highest callings and privileges for this 
Senator to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee and to use that 
position to advance the cause of our men and women in uniform. I deeply 
respect and honor those who have served our Nation in war and peace as 
watchmen on the wall of freedom, but the test of our appreciation is 
measurable by the firmness of our determination that their lives will 
not be needlessly sacrificed because we have allowed the deterrent 
power of America's military to decay. The history of this country is a 
history of military victories, but it is also a history of how our 
Nation often invited future conflict and unnecessary loss of American 
life by too swiftly disarming after our victories and squandering the 
opportunities of peace.
  In 1939, Army Chief of Staff, Malin Craig said:

       What transpires on prospective battlefields is influenced 
     vitally years before in the councils of the staff and in the 
     legislative halls of Congress. Time is the only thing that 
     may be irrevocably lost, and it is the first thing lost sight 
     of in the seductive false security of peaceful times.

  Mr. President, I believe we have been living in peaceful times. We 
have enjoyed prosperity and peace that is almost unprecedented in 
America these

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past several years. I fear that storm clouds are gathering, however, on 
America's horizon, that the ``seductive false security of our peaceful 
times'' is fast fading. We see a frightening proliferation of weapons 
of mass destruction. We see worldwide terrorism, much of it directed at 
Americans and American interests. We see political instability and 
human suffering, social disorder resulting from ethnic hatred, power-
hungry dictators, and the very real prospect of global financial 
distress with all of its attendant consequences. All of this, I 
believe, calls for eternal vigilance, a national defense second to 
none, a military equal to the threats of a new century.
  We have a unique opportunity, I believe, and a strategic pause that 
is fast fading to build a new military equal to the new challenges and 
the new threats of the future. Closer to home, it is my hope that the 
Senate, in every future debate on social policy, will focus on the role 
of families, churches and community institutions in meeting human needs 
and touching human souls. This is a world of heroic commitment and high 
standards and true compassion that must be respected and fostered and 
protected, not harassed or undermined by Government or Hollywood. It is 
a world of promise that I urge all of you to take the time to discover.
  I believe our Nation needs a bold, new definition of compassion. We 
need compassion that shows good outcomes, not just good intentions. We 
need to get rid of the destructive welfare culture. We have taken a 
great step in that direction, but we still need to fulfill our 
responsibilities to the less fortunate and disadvantaged, the children 
and the helpless. We need to abandon our illusions about Government 
bureaucracies, but we still need to keep our human decency.
  How is this possible? I am convinced there is a way--a hopeful new 
direction for change, because there are people and institutions in our 
society that can reach and change these things. Families and 
neighborhoods, churches, charities, and volunteer associations have the 
tools to transform people's lives. They can demand individual 
responsibility. They can practice tough love. They can offer moral 
values and spiritual renewal--things that Government can't do, and we 
should not want Government to do.
  I believe a bold, new definition of compassion will adopt this bold 
dream: to break the monopoly of Government as a provider of compassion 
and return its resources to individuals, churches, synagogues, 
charities, volunteer associations, community organizations and others. 
This, I believe, is the next step of the welfare debate and the next 
stage of reform, the next frontier of compassion in America.
  Before I close, let me add a personal note, and it is difficult for 
me to say this. I have deliberated long on whether I should say this. 
But I believe, since I am not going to be here next year, this is 
something I would want to have said. So allow me to briefly do that.
  I resolved when I came here, like many of you, from the moment I took 
the oath, that I would do my best not to do anything to bring this body 
into disrepute, that I would try not to tarnish it by word or action, 
that whatever I did in public policy, I would try my best not to 
contribute to public cynicism or a diminishing of the office. I think 
all of us feel this burden. It is one of the reasons that I believe 
this impeachment process, which we are contemplating, which looms large 
on the horizon of this Senate, has to be taken seriously. I don't 
presume that any of us should draw a conclusion at this point. But I 
believe it is a serious thing to consider. I don't believe that moral 
deregulation of public office is ratified by public apathy. It will be 
a terrible thing if the ethical expectations of public office are 
allowed to wither. The Nation could double its wealth, but we could 
have a shrunken legacy. I believe each of you who will be here have a 
high duty and moral responsibility to address this with the utmost 
seriousness and the absolute smallest amount of partisanship that is 
possible, and I speak to my colleagues on the Republican side, as well 
as the Democrat side.
  It is my hope that when the time comes, the Senate will give evidence 
to the ideals that I have seen displayed so many times in this body. I 
believe these things strongly, but I don't want to end on this point. I 
make the points because I have learned from so many here in the Senate 
and from so many great Americans who served before me how honorable 
public service can be. I am not leaving the Senate disillusioned in any 
way. I leave having seen how important and how sometimes noble elective 
office can be, after nearly two decades of service. I believe in this 
job and in its goals, and I am confident that the country is well 
served by my many friends and colleagues who will continue to serve and 
lead this institution.
  Again, I thank my great State of Indiana and the people and friends 
who made it possible for me to serve here. I thank my God for the 
privilege of service in this place, and I thank each of you for being 
my friends and my colleagues and leaving me with memories that I will 
never, ever forget. I will leave here extolling this institution as the 
greatest deliberative body in the greatest country in the history of 
the world, and I have been privileged to be a part of it. Thank you 
very much.
  [Applause.]

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