[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 144 (Monday, October 12, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12434-S12436]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  FAREWELL TO OUR DEPARTING COLLEAGUES

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, on Saturday, I had a chance to talk about 
our good friend, Dale Bumpers. I'd like to take a few minutes to talk 
about four other friends who will be leaving us at the end of this 
Congress.
  Shortly after he left the White House, Calvin Coolidge was called on 
to fill out a standard form. After filling in his name and address, he 
came to a line marked ``occupation.'' He wrote ``retired.'' When he 
came to the next line, labeled ``remarks,'' he wrote ``Glad of it.'' I 
suspect that our colleagues who are retiring at the end of this 
Congress are also ``glad of it''--at least in some small measure. But, 
in addition to relief, I hope they also feel a sense of pride--both for 
what they have accomplished here, and the dignity with which they have 
served.
  In a short time here, Dirk Kempthorne has made all of our lives a 
little better. Thanks in large part to him, the Safe Drinking Water Act 
is now the law. Senator Kempthorne has also reminded us of the 
importance of state

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and local involvement in our decisions. We will all miss him.
  I had the good fortune to travel with Senator Kempthorne to the Far 
East. As most of our colleagues know, as we travel we get to know one 
another even better. I know him and I admire him and I wish him well in 
his life after the Senate. I also applaud him for the nature with which 
he has continued to work with all of us. He has a very conciliatory, 
very thoughtful, a very civil way with which to deal with colleagues on 
issues. If we would all follow Dirk Kempthorne's example, in my view, 
we would be a lot better off in this body. His manner, his leadership, 
his character, his personality is one that we are going to miss greatly 
here in the U.S. Senate.
  We will also miss Dan Coats. With his thoughtful approach and 
uncompromising principles, Senator Coats has followed his heart above 
all else. And, as a result of his support of the Family and Medical 
Leave Act, millions of Americans are able to follow their hearts, too, 
and spend more time with their families when they need them most.
  When Senator Coats announced his retirement in 1996, he said, ``I 
want to leave (politics) when I am young enough to contribute somewhere 
else * * * I want to leave when there is still a chance to follow God's 
leading to something new.'' Wherever Senator Coats and Senator 
Kempthorne are led, we wish them both the best. I am confident that 
they will continue to contribute much to their country and to their 
fellow citizens.
  And we will surely miss our own 3 departing Senators.
  Dale Bumpers, Wendell Ford and John Glenn are 3 of the sturdiest 
pillars in this institution. They have much in common. They came here--
all 3 of them--in 1974. For nearly a quarter-century, they have worked 
to restore Americans' faith in their government.
  Their names have been called with the roll of every important 
question of our time. And they have answered that call with integrity 
and dignity.
  They are sons of small town America who still believe in the values 
they learned back in Charlestown, Arkansas; Owensboro, Kentucky; and 
New Concord, Ohio. They are also modest men.
  Perhaps because they had already accomplished so much before they 
came to the Senate, they have never worried about grabbing headlines 
here. Instead, they have been content to work quietly, but diligently--
often with colleagues from across the aisle--to solve problems as 
comprehensively as they can. They have been willing to take on the 
``nuts and bolts'' work of the Senate--what John Glenn once called 
``the grunt work'' of making the government run more efficiently.
  They were all elected to the Senate by wide margins, and re-elected 
by even wider margins. And they all would have been re-elected this 
year, I have no doubt, had they chosen to run again.
  What I will remember most about each of them, though, is not how much 
they are like each other they are, but how unlike anyone else they are. 
Each of them is an American original.
  As I said, I've already shared my thoughts about Dale Bumpers. No 
Senator has ever had more courage than Dale Bumpers.
  And no Senate Leader has ever had the benefit of a better teacher 
than Wendell Ford.
  No Leader has ever enjoyed such a loyal partnership as I have. No 
Leader has ever had a better friend and counselor.
  For the past 4 years, Senator Ford has been my right hand and much 
more. He is as skilled a political mind, and as warm a human being, as 
this Senate has ever known.
  Carved inside the drawer of the desk in which Wendell sits is the 
name of another Kentucky Senator, ``the Great Compromisor,'' Henry 
Clay. It is a fitting match.
  Like Henry Clay, Wendell Ford believes that compromise is honorable 
and necessary in a democracy. But he also understands that compromise 
is, as Clay said, ``negotiated hurt.''
  I suspect that is why he has always preferred to try to work out 
disagreements behind the scenes. It allows both sides to bend, and 
still keep their dignity.
  In 1991, Wendell's quiet, bipartisan style convinced a Senator from 
across the aisle, Mark Hatfield, to join him in sponsoring the ``Motor 
Voter'' bill. Working together, they convinced the Senate to pass that 
legislation. To this day, it remains the most ambitious effort Congress 
has made since the Voting Rights Act to open up the voting booth to 
more Americans.
  Wendell Ford has served the Bluegrass State as a state senator, 
lieutenant governor, governor and United States Senator. His love for 
his fellow Kentuckians is obvious, and it is reciprocated.
  In his 1980 Senate race, Wendell Ford became the first opposed 
candidate in Kentucky history to carry all 120 counties. In 1992, he 
received the highest number of votes ever cast for any candidate in his 
state.
  Throughout his years in the Senate, Senator Ford has also been a 
tenacious fighter for the people of Kentucky. He has also been a leader 
on aviation issues, a determined foe of government waste and 
duplication, a champion of campaign finance reform, and--something we 
are especially grateful for on this side of the aisle--a tireless 
leader for the Democratic Party.
  He chaired the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee for three 
Congresses, from 1976 through 1982. And, in 1990, Democratic Senators 
elected him unanimously to be our party whip, our second-in-command, in 
the Senate--a position he still holds today.
  We will miss his raspy and unmistakable voice, his good humor and 
wise counsel.
  Finally, there is John Glenn. What can one say about John Glenn that 
has not already been said?
  In all these 24 years, as hard as he tried to blend in with the rest 
of us, as hard as he tried to be just a colleague among colleagues, it 
never quite worked, did it?
  I used to think that maybe I was the only one here who still felt 
awed in his presence. Two years ago, on a flight from China with John 
and a handful of other Senators and our spouses, I learned that wasn't 
so.
  During the flight, we were able to persuade John to recollect that 
incredible mission aboard Friendship 7, when he became the first 
American to orbit the Earth. He told us about losing all radio 
communication during re-entry, about having to guide his spacecraft 
manually during the most critical point in re-entry, about seeing 
pieces of his fiberglass heat panel bursting into flames and flying off 
his space capsule, knowing that at any moment, he could be incinerated.
  We all huddled around him with our eyes wide open. No one moved. No 
one said a word.
  Listening to him, I felt the same awe I had felt when I was 14 years 
old, sitting in a classroom in Aberdeen, South Dakota, watching TV 
accounts of that flight. Then I looked around me, and realized everyone 
else there was feeling the same thing.
  I saw that same sense of awe in other Senators' faces in June, when 
we had a dinner for John at the National Air and Space Museum. Before 
dinner, we were invited to have our photographs taken with John in 
front of the Friendship 7 capsule. I don't think I've ever seen so many 
Senators waiting so patiently for anything as we did for that one 
picture.
  A lot of people tend to think of two John Glenns: Colonel John Glenn, 
the astronaut-hero; and Senator John Glenn. The truth is, there is only 
John Glenn--the patriot.
  Love for his country is what sent John into space. It's what brought 
him to Washington, and compelled him to work so diligently all these 
years in the Senate.
  People who have been there say you see the world differently from 
space. You see the ``big picture.'' You see how small and 
interconnected our planet is.
  Perhaps it's because he came to the Senate with that perspective that 
John has fought so hard against nuclear proliferation and other weapons 
of mass destruction.
  Maybe because he'd had enough glamour and tickertape parades by the 
time he came here, John chose to immerse himself in some decidedly 
unglamorous causes.
  He immersed himself in the scientific and the technical. He looked at 
government with the eyes of an engineer, and tried to imagine ways it 
could work better and more efficiently.
  As early as 1978, he called for Congress to live by the same 
workplace

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rules it sets for everyone else. More recently, he spearheaded the 
overhaul of the federal government procurement system, enabling the 
government to buy products faster, and save money at the same time.
  In 1974, the year he was elected to the Senate, John Glenn carried 
all 88 counties in Ohio. In 1980, he was re-elected with the largest 
margin in his state's history. The last time he ran, in 1992, he became 
the first Ohio Senator ever to win 4 terms.
  As I said, I'm sure he would have been re-elected had he chosen to 
run again. But, as we all know, he has other plans.
  For 36 years, John Glenn has wanted to go back into space. On October 
29, he will finally get his chance. At 77 years old, he will become the 
oldest human being ever to orbit the earth--by 16 years.
  Many of us will be in Houston to see John and his Discovery crew 
mates blast off. If history is any indication, I suspect we will be 
wide-eyed once again.
  In closing, let me say, Godspeed, John Glenn and Dale Bumpers, 
Wendell Ford, Dirk Kempthorne and Dan Coats. You have served this 
Senate well. You are all ``Senators' Senators,'' and we will miss you 
dearly.

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