[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 69 (Thursday, May 13, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5259-S5260]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      IN MEMORY OF MEG GREENFIELD

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, Meg Greenfield has just passed away.
  On behalf of all colleagues in the Senate, our hearts go out to the 
family, to all of those who were so close to Meg over these years. 
There are few giants in journalism who have the standing stature and 
the extraordinary influence that Meg Greenfield has had through the 
years.

[[Page S5260]]

  Her contribution to journalism has been legendary. Her contribution 
to her country through journalism has been extraordinary. It has been 
our good fortune to follow her leadership in journalism, to be guided 
by her wisdom, and certainly to be influenced by her good judgment on 
many, many occasions over these extraordinary decades which she has 
been involved.
  I express my condolences to her family and say farewell to someone 
who has made an extraordinary impact on our country and on her 
profession.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I want to join with Senator Daschle in 
expressing our heartfelt thoughts to the members of her family. Meg 
Greenfield put up an extraordinary fight against cancer for a very long 
period of time and did so with incredible bravery and extraordinary 
elegance, style, and class.
  For the past two decades, she was the editor of the editorial page at 
The Washington Post, and in her long and brilliant career, the 
editorial page set an unsurpassed standard of excellence on all the 
great issues of the day in the nation's foreign and domestic policy.
  She earned a Pulitzer Prize and many other honors during her 
outstanding career. For a quarter century, her extraordinary columns in 
Newsweek Magazine were a consistent voice of insight and reason that we 
looked forward to and learned from.
  I had the opportunity to visit her just about 2 weeks ago. She was 
always immensely understanding and respectful of the political process. 
She admired those who were part of the political process in the finest 
sense, and believed that those who were really committed to public life 
could make a difference in our society.
  She was a hopeful, idealistic person who wrote with great clarity, 
great eloquence, and great passion about the state of our nation. She 
established a high standard by which political leaders of both parties 
could try to measure themselves.
  She made an extraordinary difference with her life. She had scores of 
friends and was highly regarded and respected in her business. To those 
who knew her and respected her, she was a giant in the writing press. A 
graduate of Smith College, Meg Greenfield became one of the greatest 
women and greatest journalists or our time, and we will miss her very 
much.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, my colleagues have spoken about Meg 
Greenfield. I also want to echo their sentiments.
  I think what was most amazing about her was not just her great 
talent, her ability to write, her extraordinary breadth of knowledge 
and interest, but to watch her, especially in the last few months, when 
ravaged by disease, she continued that same interest. She continued her 
work.
  When you spoke with her or saw her, she never spoke about her own 
illness; she spoke of her interest in others. I have never once during 
her long illness heard her complain about her illness, but rather she 
would talk of others.
  This was an extraordinary woman who left much earlier than she should 
have left this Earth, but she left behind a legacy of the truest of 
professionalism and one that will be missed.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, let me say a few words also about Meg 
Greenfield. This was an extraordinary journalist, an extraordinary 
person, a person who anybody would have to look up to.
  I remember as a young conservative meeting with her. She was fair and 
decent to me. It just about meant everything to me that she would take 
time to discuss some of the great issues of the day with me.
  I have inestimable respect for her. My sympathy and the sympathy of 
my wife Elaine goes out to her family. They have real reason to be very 
proud of her. She set standards of journalism that were very high. What 
pleased me is that even though I know she disagreed with me on a number 
of issues, she was very fair, very frank, and very decent when we 
discussed them. She went out of her way to make me feel welcomed.
  Whether you agree or disagree with the Washington Post--I personally 
believe it is one of the greatest newspapers in America--for her to 
rise to the pinnacle of her profession in that great newspaper and to 
make sure that the editorial page and other aspects she worked with in 
the Washington Post were done with integrity and decency always 
impressed me.
  We will miss her. Our love and affection and hearts go out to the 
family. She deserves the respect of everybody in this body, and, 
frankly, many, many, more throughout the country.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, our sympathies go out to the family of 
Meg Greenfield. She was, indeed, an extraordinary person, a thoughtful 
and brilliant writer and reporter.

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