[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 142 (Saturday, October 10, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12293-S12295]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            FAREWELL SPEECH

  Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, I rise this afternoon to speak, for what 
may be the last time, on the floor of the Senate. It is a very 
bittersweet time for me, after 24 years, most of which have been spent 
at this very desk. I might say at this moment that I have been blessed 
by having Senator Kennedy as my seatmate these many years, and before 
him Senator Gore--both truly outstanding men.
  In order to deliver a speech such as I am about to deliver, Mr. 
President, I do not think there is anything wrong with listing some of 
the defining moments in my life, because this speech is really more for 
the benefit of my children and grandchildren than it is for my 
colleagues or the people of America.
  First of all, I was blessed by my parents. I remind my brother from 
time to time that everybody was not so lucky in choosing their parents 
as he and I were. And that really is the reason that I stand here as 
one of 1,843 men and women ever to serve in the U.S. Senate. We were 
taught when we were children that when we died we were ``going to 
Franklin Roosevelt''. And the reason we were taught that is because we 
were very poor. Most people do not realize that the South, from 1865 
until about the time Franklin Roosevelt became President, was still 
living almost as a conquered nation. National politicians paid very 
little attention to the South.
  In our household, we were poor during the Great Depression. And I 
might say, the Great Depression is certainly one of the most important 
defining moments of my life. But it was during the Great Depression 
that Franklin Roosevelt began to provide all kinds of things for people 
in the South that they had previously thought unthinkable.
  We didn't have indoor plumbing. We didn't have running water. We 
didn't have paved streets. We didn't have much of anything. The people 
in our community died of typhoid fever in the summertime because the 
outhouse was just a few steps away from the well from which we drew our 
drinking water. Then Franklin Roosevelt began to provide immunizations 
for children against smallpox and typhoid. It was free. We got those 
shots at school.
  We had then what we called hobos or tramps; today we call them 
homeless people. My mother always saved a few scraps after breakfast 
knowing that some tramp was going to knock on the back door and ask for 
food. That was back before welfare came into existence. So we were very 
poor.
  I remember when I was 12 years old my father heard that Franklin 
Roosevelt was coming to Arkansas. He was a great believer in America 
and the political system and public service. He wanted my brother and 
me to see Franklin Roosevelt. So we drove over a gravel road 20 miles 
to Booneville, AR, and when the train on the Rock Island line pulled 
in, Franklin Roosevelt came out on the back platform, obviously being 
held up by a couple of Secret Service men. I tugged on my father's arm 
and I said, ``Dad, what's wrong with him?'' He said, ``I will tell you 
later.'' On the way home, he told us that Franklin Roosevelt had 
contracted polio when he was 37 years old, he couldn't walk, and he 
carried 12 pounds of steel braces on his legs.
  Then he told my brother and me that if Franklin Roosevelt could 
become President and couldn't even walk, there was no reason why my 
brother and I, with strong minds and bodies, couldn't become President, 
too. I never took my eye off that goal until many, many years later.
  In the following year, my father was president of the Arkansas Retail 
Hardware Association. They gave our family $300 to go to Los Angeles to 
the national convention. I can remember the big party at the Biltmore 
Hotel in Los Angeles in 1937. I had never stepped on a carpet before in 
my life, and the Biltmore was filled with thick carpet. We just loved 
it. We didn't stay at the Biltmore. We were staying at the $2-a-night 
cabin.
  But the night of the big party, everybody was in tuxedos and long 
dresses, except my parents. And all the children were dressed in 
tuxedos, too, even in that Depression year of 1937. But I can remember 
my brother and I had on long pants and white shirts, no tie, no coat. 
We were terribly embarrassed. My father sensed that, and so the next 
day he told us that he knew we were embarrassed but he reminded us that 
the most important thing was that we were clean, our clothes were 
clean, our bodies were clean, and the kind of clothes you wore really 
were not all that important. He made it OK.
  When I was 15 years old, I had a high school English and literature 
teacher named Miss Doll. Every member of the U.S. Senate has been 
influenced by a college professor or high school teacher, maybe a 
preacher or somebody else. She was my influence.
  I remember my mother, who had a tendency--not to denigrate my 
mother--to not build our self-esteem. My father was working against 
that, trying to teach us self-esteem, not ego, but esteem.
  We were reading Beowulf in English, a great piece of literature. We 
would read a paragraph and discuss it. One time it came my time to 
read. I started reading, and all of a sudden--I read about 2 pages and 
Miss Doll still hadn't stopped me--I looked up and she was standing 
there. She looked at me and she looked at the class and she said, 
``Doesn't he read beautifully?'' ``Doesn't he have a nice voice?'' And 
she said, ``And wouldn't it be tragic if he didn't use that talent.'' 
At first I thought she was making fun of me, but she did more for my 
self-esteem in 10 seconds than anybody, except my father, ever did. 
Some of my political detractors think she overdid it.
  And then just out of high school, but only after 6 months at the 
University of Arkansas, I went into the Marine Corps. World War II was 
raging. It was a terrifying time. I fully expected to be killed in that 
war. The Marines were taking terrible casualties in the South Pacific. 
Happily, I survived that. The best part of it was when I got home there 
was a caring, generous, compassionate Federal Government, waiting with 
the GI bill.

[[Page S12294]]

  While my father would have stolen to make sure we had a good 
education, my brother went to Harvard Law School and I went to the 
University of Arkansas and later Northwestern University Law School--
both expensive schools my father could never afford. I studied 
political science and law. The reason I did that is because my father 
wanted me to go into public service. He wanted me and my brother to be 
politicians. He may be the last man who ever lived who encouraged his 
sons to go into politics.
  In my first year in law school, he and my mother were killed in a car 
wreck. They were tragically killed by a drunken driver. Neither of them 
had ever had a drink in their life. That is what made it so bizarre. 
The big disappointment of my life was that my father didn't live to see 
me Governor or Senator.
  The next defining moment of my life is when our children were born--
first Brent, then Bill and then Brooke.
  The next defining moment was when I was practicing law in a little 
town of 1,200 people and decided to run for Governor. The day I filed, 
a poll was taken statewide. It was the last day of the filing deadline. 
I found that of the eight Democrats in the primary, I had 1-percent 
name recognition. It was probably the most foolhardy thing I had ever 
done in my life. But I was trying to keep faith with my father, and I 
believe strongly in our country and I believe in public service.
  The next defining moment in my life was shortly after I was elected 
Governor I got an invitation to go to Kansas City to speak at a Truman 
Day dinner. I told them I couldn't go, the legislature was in session. 
I just assumed those legislators would screw the dome off the capital 
if I left town. They came back and said, ``If you will agree to do 
this, we will let you spend an hour with President and Mrs. 
Truman,'' and that was more than I could resist. So I went and spent 
that hour with President Truman and he asked me how I liked being 
Governor. I said, ``I don't like it, it's a real pressure cooker. I am 
just a country lawyer. This is all new to me and the press is driving 
me crazy.''

  I was telling him what a terrible job being Governor of Arkansas was, 
and it suddenly dawned on me I was talking to a man who had to make the 
decision to drop the atomic bomb that ended World War II. And so I shut 
up. And then he told me, as I left, ``Son, while you are looking at the 
ceiling every night in the Governor's mansion, wondering what you are 
going to do, remember one thing: The people elected you to do what you 
think is right and that is all they expect out of you. They have busy 
lives. So, remember, always tell people the truth; they can handle 
it.''
  That didn't sound like very profound advice to me at the time. But 
indeed it was. I have thought about it every day of my life since then.
  Secondly, he said, ``When you are debating in your own mind the 
issues that you have to confront, you think about this: Get the best 
advice you can get on both sides of the issue, make up your mind which 
one is right, and then you do it. That is all the people of the State 
expect of you--to do what you think is right.''
  So when I drove off the mansion grounds 4 years later, coming to the 
Senate, as I told my Democratic colleagues the other night, most of 
whom know this, I came here with the full intention of running for 
President. I had a very successful 4 years as Governor. I thought the 
world was my oyster and I fully intended, as I say, to run. The reason 
I didn't run is because after I had been here for a year, I realized 
that this whole apparatus was much more complex than I thought it was.
  I told my children, if I had three lives to live, at the end of the 
last one, I would look back prior to 10 years at the end of it and 
realize how dumb I was. I was so smart when I graduated from high 
school, I could hardly bear it. When I got out of law school, the 
problem was compounded. When I drove off the mansion grounds, I was 
quite sure I was ready to be king of the world.
  The other night I told Senator Sarbanes I really regret that I have 
not been as effective a legislator as I should have been. He said, 
``Everybody feels that way.'' What I was really saying, I suppose, is I 
wish I had known then what I know now. In my dying breath I will look 
back and think about, really, how I was not as smart this Saturday 
afternoon as I thought I was. That is what a living, learning 
experience is.
  So I chose not to run for President. By the time I felt that I was 
qualified to be President, I decided that it demanded a price that I 
was not willing to pay. Not to be purely apocalyptic about our future, 
because I am not, I must say, in all candor, partisanship has reached a 
point in this country, and the demands for political money have become 
so great--two very insidious things--that good men and women are opting 
out of public service, and not to enter public service. Money is 
corrupting the political process and it threatens our very democracy.
  Since I announced that I would not run last year, I confess to you, 
Mr. President and colleagues, that I have voted in ways that I would 
not have if I were running. I think of the few times when I would have 
had to worry about what kind of a 30-second spot that vote would 
generate.
  I have cast my share of courageous votes since I have been here, as 
Harry Truman admonished me to do. I have always tried to use simple 
tests as to how I voted; How would my children and grandchildren judge 
me? Did it make me stronger or the Nation stronger? Did it do any 
irreversible damage to the environment? Is it fair to the less 
fortunate among us? Does it comport with the thrust of our 
Constitution, the greatest document ever conceived by the mind of man? 
Or does it simply make me stronger politically because it satisfies the 
political whims of the moment? Or does it simply keep the political 
money supply flowing?
  Speaking of courageous votes, I voted for the Panama Canal Treaties 
in 1978 and, in all fairness, in 1980, had I had a strong opponent, I 
would not be standing here right now. I lucked out. But I can tell you, 
people were absolutely livid about my vote on the Panama Canal 
Treaties--a fabricated political issue. I ask the American people and 
my colleagues, who today has been inconvenienced by the Panama Canal 
Treaties? Is this country any weaker? The truth is that it is stronger. 
Our relationship with Panama is much stronger. It was the Quemoy and 
Matsu issue of 1978.
  Incidentally, Henry Bellmon of Oklahoma voted against the Panama 
Canal Treaties and made a minute-and-a-half speech in doing it, while 
the rest of us were pontificating for hours trying to justify our 
positions. He announced he would not run again because, coming from the 
conservative State of Oklahoma, he knew he didn't have a prayer of 
being reelected, so hot was that issue.
  When I voted against Ronald Reagan's prayer in school amendment--the 
only southern Senator to do so, my opponent tried to take advantage of 
it. But the American people and the people of my State--once you 
explained what was involved to them, where the school prayers would be 
written or adopted by the school board and required saying in the 
schools--came to understand the perils of the amendment. I always tell 
youngsters, and college groups particularly, when you think about that, 
you tell me which country that has an official state religion you want 
to live in.
  Mr. President, one of the greatest moments of my life was when I was 
Governor and a man came into my office wanting me to talk to the 
highway department about a late penalty they were going to assess him 
for being 60 days late in completing a highway job. To shorten the 
story, I said, ``If I do this for you, how do I explain to the next guy 
who walks in the door why I can't do it for him? I don't want to start 
down that road.'' After a long conversation, when he started to walk 
out after I told him I could not, under any circumstances, comply with 
the request, he said, ``Governor, that's the reason I voted for you.''
  This institution is a great place. It is supposed to be the 
deliberative body. The Founding Fathers intended the lower House, the 
House of Representatives, to be the House of the people. They expected 
this place to be the deliberative body. It is a curious thing--and the 
minority leader here knows this--every amendment, every bill that comes 
up, we immediately start trying to figure out, how stringently can we 
limit the debate on this issue? There are times when that is fully 
justified,

[[Page S12295]]

and there are times when only if you fully air something do the Senate 
Members really come here well enough informed to vote on it.
  We are still the oldest democracy on Earth. We are still living under 
the oldest Constitution on Earth, and without men and women of goodwill 
being willing to offer themselves for service, there is absolutely no 
assurance that that will always be. Thomas Jefferson said, ``The price 
of liberty is eternal vigilance.'' He was not just talking about 
military vigilance. We are still woefully inadequate in this country in 
the field of education. If I were the President of the United States 
and I were looking at a $70 billion surplus, I would make sure the 
first thing we did was to pass a bill that said no child in this Nation 
shall be deprived of a college education for lack of money. Look at all 
the statistics where we rank among the developed nations in education. 
And look at the state of health care. It is good for those who can 
afford it. And 45 million who have no health insurance and no health 
care do the best they can.

  Mr. President, I have been richly blessed in my life, as I said, 
mostly by devoted parents, and good Methodist Sunday school teaching. 
My mother wanted me to be a Methodist preacher and my father wanted me 
to be a politician. Think about growing up with that pressure. I am 
personally blessed with a great family. If I died tomorrow, the people 
of Arkansas would take note of it, and there would be headlines in all 
of the papers in the State. But if Betty died tomorrow the people of 
our State would grieve. She has founded two organizations.
  When Ronald Reagan announced to this country that we might just fire 
one across the Soviet Union's bow to get their attention, he terrified 
her. She and a group of congressional wives met around my kitchen table 
for about 6 months. Finally, I came home one night, and she said, ``We 
are forming an organization. And we feel so strongly about it that we 
are going to put `peace' in the name. We are going to call it Peace 
Links''. Ultimately, she had almost 250 congressional wives conscripted 
into that organization.
  I told her ``you are going to get your husband beat.'' We are from a 
conservative State. People in Arkansas believe in a strong defense. 
People across this Nation believe in a strong defense. She said, ``You 
men are going to get my children killed.''
  She had already spent all of her public life, from the time I was 
Governor until this day trying to immunize all of the children in this 
country. And I am not going to go through all of the successes that she 
has had, which have been staggering.
  The Western Hemisphere is free of polio. Africa will be free of polio 
by the year 2002. Asia will be free of polio by the year 2004. And 
measles is next.
  I tell you, she deserves a lot of credit for the virtual elimination 
of childhood diseases in this country. She went to see President Carter 
when he first came to power. She said, ``I tell you something you can 
do that will have a lasting effect on the health of this Nation, and it 
will help you a lot when you run again.'' He put Joe Califano at her 
disposal. And today she and Rosalynn Carter have an organization called 
``Every Child By Two.'' She is still going at it--peace and children.
  I have three beautiful children, and six beautiful, healthy 
grandchildren. I have been blessed with exceptional staff members, most 
of whom are more than staff members. They are very good friends. I have 
been blessed with the support of the people of my State in winning 
almost every election by 60 percent or more of the vote. I was much 
more liberal than my constituents. I like to believe that they 
respected me because they knew what I stood for is what I believed 
instead of what was politically expedient at any given time. But, for 
whatever reason, I will always be grateful to them.
  Our State does not deserve to have been torn apart for the past 6 
years. I know so many innocent people who have been destroyed, 
financially and mentally, by a criminal justice system gone awry. You 
would have to go back to the Salem witchcraft trials to find anything 
comparable.
  I do not, nor does any Senator, condone the President's conduct. Call 
it whatever you want--reprehensible, indefensible, unconscionable. Call 
it anything you want. But most of us take pride in President Clinton's 
Presidency. And the American people are still saying they like him. But 
completely aside from that, as I say, I weep sometimes for the unfair 
treatment to my State, and so many innocent people in it.
  I have been blessed by unbelievable friendships of colleagues. Those 
friendships will probably wane. It is almost impossible to maintain a 
relationship with a colleague once you leave here. That is really 
tragic. But I am realistic. And I know that is what it will be. I know 
we will have a difficult time having the same kind of relationship, if 
any at all. But I want them to know that I value their friendship. I 
value my service with them. I have served with some truly great men and 
women. And, as Senator Byrd likes to say, only 1,843 men and women have 
ever been so privileged to serve in this body.
  I am already nostalgic about this Chamber--24 years in this Chamber, 
the Cloakroom, the hearing rooms, the Capitol itself. For 24 years, the 
first 20 of which I went home almost every weekend and came back on 
Sunday night, I never failed, as we flew by the Washington Monument, to 
get goose bumps. And I hope I never do. So, colleagues, I thank you for 
being my friend. To the people of my State, I thank you for allowing me 
to serve here.
  I want to teach, in order to teach children that politics is a noble 
profession. My father said it long before Bobby Kennedy did. It is a 
noble calling. And the minute it becomes what so many people think it 
is, who do you think suffers? All of us do. So I want to inspire this 
oncoming generation, as my father did me, to get involved in the 
political process and public service. You have a duty and a 
responsibility.
  So, to the U.S. Senate, to all of my colleagues, God bless and 
Godspeed.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Thomas). The Senator from New Jersey.

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