[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 142 (Saturday, October 10, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12295-S12297]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          SENATOR DALE BUMPERS

  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, this is one of those moments that one 
feels a bit overwhelmed--to follow Dale Bumpers in a discourse that he 
gives here on the floor. This is a task that I never liked--to get on 
the floor after Dale Bumpers moved us with his oratory and described 
his feelings for this institution and our responsibility. But there is 
another reason that I am really feeling uneasy; that is, the prospect 
that this place will be without Dale's voice, without his wit, his 
humor, but more importantly, his commitment to the people of this 
country.
  I want you to know, Dale, what a sacrifice I make today. I decided to 
stay here rather than to go to a budget conference down the hall trying 
to wrestle with the issues of the day. So I sacrificed that time just 
so I could stand on this floor to hear your terminal speech. That is 
devotion and friendship, I assume.
  I have to say that one could see the position that Dale has earned 
over the years, because people were as generous and as warm and as 
friendly from the other side of the aisle. That doesn't mean that we 
always agree, and it doesn't mean that we always share a similar 
direction for our country.
  But Dale has succeeded in winning friends, in making sure that we 
never forgot about who it is we are here to serve. We could make lots 
of jokes, but one never wants to compete with Dale's humor. I think 
about the only close match was with Dale Bumpers and Alan Simpson. That 
was a good team. The jokes were always better when we were off the 
floor somehow. But beyond the wit, beyond the humor, beyond the jokes 
was always this incredible pursuit of what is right for our country and 
what is right for our people.
  I have submitted a written statement without the kind of eloquence I 
wish I could have borrowed from Dale. He was right, he was accurate 
when he said his impression of his IQ was overblown. All of us agree 
with that.
  We know Dale well. We love him. We love to tease him a little bit. 
There were very few times on this floor when Dale could not get 
attention from others, and it wasn't just the volume; it

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was the substance of his mission that we all paid attention to. They 
kid him about stretching the cord that holds our microphones, but 
everybody was anxious to hear what Dale had to say or read what was in 
the Record.
  So I just wanted to have a chance to say how pleased I am for the 
opportunity to be here at the last speech Senator Dale Bumpers was 
going to make in this Chamber. It has been an honor to serve with Dale 
as well as to serve with people such as John Glenn. John Glenn is one 
of the finest people who, it is fair to say, has ever left this Earth. 
But we are going to see John Glenn at the end of the month and witness 
his heroic and incredible mission into the sky. John Glenn was with me 
when I was sworn into the Senate. We happened to be in Colorado on a 
vacation just 16 years ago, and he stood while I found a magistrate to 
swear me in because there was an opportunity based on the resignation 
of the then-appointed Senator.
  At the same time we are saying goodbye to Wendell Ford. Wendell is 
someone who you could fight with, get your blood pressure up, more 
often than not you would lose the argument and lose the debate. But 
Wendell Ford got things done. And I want to tell you, if I had to be 
served by a Senator, I would want that Senator to have the same concern 
about my State and my well-being and my family and my future as did 
Wendell Ford. He never let an opportunity go by without defending his 
people and the State of Kentucky. Although we disagreed on lots of 
occasions, I always walked away with a high degree of affection and 
respect for Wendell Ford.
  So when I listen to Dale Bumpers summarize his life, I think about 
where we are, because too often the arguments here overtake the purpose 
of our functioning. But Dale Bumpers, Senator Dale Bumpers reminds us 
that the mission is almost a holy one and that we have to step back and 
take a deep breath and get down to the business of the American people.
  I wish to thank the Democratic leader for giving me these few 
minutes. I also wanted to take an opportunity to say so long to Senator 
Dan Coats. Dan Coats was a formidable opponent for me when New Jersey 
persisted in sending its trash out to Indiana where it was welcomed by 
the communities that had the certified landfills and all that. But Dan 
Coats didn't object when New Jersey sent its All-American football 
players to Notre Dame or to the University of Indiana. But serving with 
Dan also has been a privilege.
  Mr. President, I wrap up just by saying that Dale Bumpers, if you 
listened to his words, arrived here encouraged by a father who saw the 
value of Government service, and it is an interesting and touching 
explanation of what it is that provided his motivation. My father also 
motivated me to engage in whatever enterprise I could to serve the 
public. But he didn't know it then. He worked. He tried to survive with 
his family during the lean and tough years, ashamed that he had to 
resort to a job with the WPA. I will never forget how discouraged he 
was when he came home, but, he said, he needed the job; he had to feed 
his family. My father died at the age of 43, after a year of illness 
with cancer. I had already enlisted in the Army. He disintegrated in 
front of our eyes, leaving not only an empty house but an empty wallet. 
My mother had to work. I had to send home my allotment to help pay the 
bills that were accumulated during that period of time.
  But we both got here because we were encouraged by things that 
occurred in our families, messages that were sent by our parents, mine 
perhaps less articulate than the one I heard Dale Bumpers describe. But 
we are here because they were able to give us that opportunity and we 
are here because we want to serve, to do something, to give something 
back as a result of having that opportunity.
  To Senator Dale Bumpers and the others, we say farewell. This place 
will be a lesser place without your presence, but because of your 
presence this place will continue to gain strength and to do what we 
have to do for the future. Rest assured that America will be strong. It 
will be different forces and different faces, but the work will 
continue to be done here.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. If the Senator will suspend for just a minute, 
I am going to stretch the prerogatives of the Chair to say I came over 
to talk about Senator Bumpers, whom I have gotten to know recently. We 
worked on park bills. I know no one more committed nor more easy to 
work with and who keeps his word any better.
  I am sorry to say that, but I needed to.
  The Senator from South Dakota.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I don't think anyone could say it any 
better than that, and I appreciate the Presiding Officer's comments. 
They are certainly well spoken and very appropriate. I join my 
colleague from New Jersey in expressing feelings that are very hard to 
express in public. Senator Bumpers and I have some things in common. I 
am not as eloquent as he is, but I feel at times such as this probably 
as emotional.
  I love his sense of humor. I have used more Bumpers material in my 
public career than anybody else in this Chamber. I don't think this is 
his story, but I might as well start with it. There was a time when 
Senator Bumpers was at a dinner. We all go to these banquets over and 
over and over. We all drag our wives along. And they are so good to 
come with us so often. Betty was at this particular dinner with Senator 
Bumpers, sitting, as she always does, at his side supportive and 
smiling.
  The emcee introduced Senator Bumpers as one who is a model 
legislator, a model politician, a model spokesperson for Arkansas, just 
a model person all the way around. On the way home, Dale commented to 
Betty about what a wonderful introduction that was. They got home; 
Betty brought the dictionary to Dale, sitting now in his own study, and 
read to him the word ``model,'' as it is defined in Webster's. There it 
is defined as ``a small replica of the real thing.''
  Senator Bumpers is a model in the truest sense of the word. In many 
respects I call him my model, for how he speaks, for what he stands 
for, for how he interacts with his colleagues, for how he represents 
his State, for all of the courageous positions he has taken. I don't 
know how you do better than that. I don't know who it was who once 
said, ``If we are to see farther into the future, we must stand on the 
shoulders of giants.'' Dale Bumpers is a giant. And it is upon his 
shoulders that we have stood many, many, many times to see into the 
future, as I have seen. He persuades us, he cajoles us, he humors us, 
he always enlightens us.
  As I heard Senator Domenici, the senior Senator from New Mexico, say 
earlier: ``He does it in a way that is not in fashion perhaps, not in 
keeping with what the normal rules of the body are.'' The normal rules 
are, you are supposed to stay at your desk. Not Senator Bumpers. 
Senator Bumpers has the longest cord in Senate history. I joked the 
other night, when we finally see Senator Bumpers depart, we are going 
to cut up his cord and give 10 feet to every Senator and save 10 more 
for the next. He goes up and down that aisle.
  Since, as we are prone to do in this body, we name things after our 
colleagues--I happen to be fortunate enough to reside in the Byrd 
suite--I am going to start referring to that as the Bumpers corridor. 
And I am pointing, for the record, to my left. For anybody who has 
served with Dale, I don't have to point at all. We all know what the 
Bumpers corridor is.
  So it is a bittersweet moment. We recognize the time comes for all of 
us to depart, to say goodbye. As others have noted, and I am sure more 
will note before the end of the session, we say goodbye not only to our 
dear, wonderful friend Dale, but to his wife Betty as well. There is no 
question, as we all know, he over-married. There is no question who the 
real force in the family is. There is no question who the visionary and 
the giant is. As Senator Bumpers so capably noted, there is no question 
who is beloved in the State of Arkansas. We will miss Betty Bumpers and 
her vision and her humor and all of her contributions.
  I asked my staff to put some thoughts together and I really want to 
share some of them because I think, for the record and for our 
colleagues and for those who may be watching, it is important to 
remember who it was we just have heard from.
  We heard from a Marine. We heard from a man who volunteered to serve

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during World War II. We heard from a person who grew up in a small 
town, Charleston, AR--I don't have a clue where it is--where he worked 
as a smalltown lawyer and taught Sunday school. He may not have been a 
Methodist preacher, but he was a Sunday school teacher. He told us 
about his decision, in 1970, to run for Governor. What he did not say 
is that he was one of eight candidates vying for the Democratic 
nomination. He did indicate that polls taken at the start of the race 
gave him a 1-percent approval rating. That is half of what it is right 
now. He sold a herd of Angus cattle for $95,000 to finance his TV ad 
campaign. You couldn't get that much for Angus cattle today.
  He finished the primary in second place, behind someone whose name we 
all know, Orville Faubus, whose race-baiting brand of politics still 
dominated much of Arkansas Democratic politics. He beat Orville Faubus 
in a runoff and went on to beat the incumbent Republican, Governor 
Winthrop Rockefeller, in a general election by a margin of 2 to 1.
  After being elected Governor, Dale Bumpers was asked by Tom Wicker, 
then a reporter for the New York Times, to explain how a man would come 
from obscurity to beat two living legends. He answered simply, ``I 
tried to appeal to the best in people in my campaign.'' And that is 
what he has done his entire public career; he has appealed to the best 
of people.
  As Governor, he worked aggressively and successfully to modernize the 
State government. He put a tremendous emphasis on improving education 
and expanding health services. Then, in 1973, with 1 year remaining in 
his term, he made the decision to challenge another living legend, 
William J. Fulbright, for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. 
Senate. Senator Fulbright was, at that time, a 30-year incumbent 
Senator. It probably did not come as any surprise to people in 
Arkansas, but it must have to the Nation, because when all the votes 
were counted, Dale won that race too, 2 to 1.
  In the Senate, there is not a colleague in this Chamber who has not 
been affected by his eloquence and his reasoning on everything from 
arms control to the environment. He has been a champion for rural 
America. He has been a consistent advocate for fiscal discipline. In 
the 1980s he voted against the tax cuts, arguing that they would 
explode the Federal deficit. In the 1990s he took the tough votes 
needed to eliminate those deficits.
  He has been a tireless defender of the U.S. Constitution and the 
separation of powers it guarantees. He did not mention this, but he 
should have. In 1982 he was the only Senator from the Deep South to 
vote against a proposal stripping the Federal courts of their right to 
order school busing. He said at the time, while he opposed the use of 
busing to achieve racial balance, he opposed even more ``this sinister 
and devious attack on the Constitution . . . [this] erosion of the only 
document that stands between the people and tyranny.''
  This past July, shortly before launching the last of his annual 
attempts to kill the international space station, Senator Bumpers told 
a reporter that he expected to lose again but he would try anyway 
because he thought it was the right thing to do. Then he added, ``I 
probably lost as many battles as anybody who ever served in the U.S. 
Senate.''
  I want to tell my friend as he prepares to end his Senate career, if 
you did in fact lose more battles than someone else who may have served 
here, it is only because you chose tougher and more important battles. 
Even more than the outcome of your battles, you have earned your place 
in history for the dignity and the courage and the eloquence with which 
you have waged those battles.
  I remember, having just arrived--I was elected in 1986, sworn in in 
1987--by the end of the year, in 1987, I had already decided who my man 
for President was. I remember the conversation as if it took place 
yesterday. I was reminded again, as our colleague spoke on the Senate 
floor, about his ambition. That was the ambition for many of us as 
well. He would have been the same kind of outstanding President that he 
has been the outstanding Governor and Senator we know today. That was 
not to be. But in the eyes of all of us, Dale Bumpers will always stand 
as the giant we knew, as the respected legislator we trust, and as the 
friend we love.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. NICKLES addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I compliment my colleagues on their fine 
remarks about our colleague, Senator Bumpers. I already made a speech 
complimenting him for his service to the Senate. I noticed my speech 
had several things in common with the speech of Senator Daschle. I 
alluded to the fact of Senator Bumpers' sense of humor, which all of us 
have enjoyed, Democrats and Republicans, and I also referred to the 
fact that he had the longest microphone cord in the Senate. He has used 
it extensively, and we have all enjoyed that as well.

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