[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 149 (Thursday, October 28, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13338-S13339]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IN HONOR OF SENATOR JOHN CHAFEE

  Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I have had earlier comments about our 
good friend, John Chafee, but a line I was trying to say was, more than 
a balanced budget, what we need in this body is balanced Senators. I 
don't know anybody better than John. He was the best.
  I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the wonderful 
column by Mary McGrory entitled, ``The Gentleman From Rhode Island.''
  There being no objection, the column was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

               [From the Washington Post, Oct. 28, 1999]

                    The Gentleman From Rhode Island

       Sen. John Chafee of Rhode Island was a hero on the 
     battlefields of two wars: He fought in World War II and in 
     Korea. He was also a hero on the battlefield of the Senate, 
     fighting valiantly, often for lost causes, working behind 
     enemy lines, defying his party on matters of great import. He 
     was an aristocrat who brought to the Senate a sense

[[Page S13339]]

     of noblesse oblige that is otherwise unknown today. In an 
     institution that calls every male a gentleman, Chafee really 
     was one.
       He was of a size difficult for his colleagues to manage. A 
     wrestler in college and a former Marine, he hated violence. 
     He was a high-minded patrician of colonial lineage who came 
     to be idolized by his heavily Democratic and ethnically 
     diverse constituents. He served for 23 years in a body that 
     today is renowned for its pettiness and narrow-mindedness and 
     never to the end lost his zest for coalitions and 
     compromises. He was a most clubbable man, jovial and kind. 
     For many in his caucus, vision consists of imagining bringing 
     Bill Clinton to his knees. Chafee doggedly pursued his goals: 
     clean air, clean water, a nation free of guns, a world where 
     nuclear weapons were under control and people negotiated 
     their differences.
       He worried about foster children who at 18 lose government 
     subsidies; he worried about the ABM treaty. The combination 
     of practical and cosmic concerns and a nature that seemed 
     devoid of malice made him an object of wonder. People who 
     eulogized him on the Senate floor, including those who never 
     voted his way, spoke of him with love and tears.
       New Hampshire Sen. Robert Smith, now an independent, 
     remembered that in 1991, when the Republican leadership was 
     trying to dump Chafee as conference chairman, Smith, a 
     newcomer, decided against his fellow New Englander. When he 
     told Chafee that he was going to vote for Thad Cochran 
     (Miss.), all Chafee said was ``Oh, dear,'' He lost by one 
     vote.
       Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan (D), who served with Chafee on 
     Environment and Public Works, remembers Chafee saying to him 
     the next day, ``There is no place for us liberals on our side 
     any more.'' He was smiling as he said it.
       ``Liberal'' is now a toxic word. ``Moderate'' is as far as 
     anyone goes to describe someone who is out of step with Trent 
     Lott. Republicans show no mercy to people who, like Chafee, 
     sat down at committee tables and without the slightest nod to 
     partisan sensibilities said, ``Let's get at it.''
       Time was when Chafee's Wednesday group, a weekly lunch for 
     the like-minded, had a dozen members and some influence. At 
     their most recent meeting, last Wednesday, there were just 
     five, counting Chafee. He was gaunt and feeble after August 
     back surgery. He had weeks ago announced his decision to 
     retire from the Senate, but he was using every last minute to 
     make a difference. Susan Collins, a freshman Republican from 
     Maine who, like several others, regarded Chafee as ``my best 
     friend in the Senate,'' told of Chafee's fervent remarks 
     about foster children set loose at 18 and his hope that she 
     could help in helping them.
       Chafee, a gentleman of the old school, doubtless deplored 
     what went on in the Oval Office. But he was one of five 
     Republicans who voted against removing Clinton from office. 
     He was one of four Republicans who voted for the 
     Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
       Chafee took no part in the pre-debate polemics on the test 
     ban. He and Sen. Richard Lugar (Ind.), a pivotal Republican 
     figure in all arms control efforts, were conspicuously 
     absent. He told me a week before the treaty suffered meltdown 
     on the floor that he was concentrating on the ABM treaty. As 
     usual, he was looking down the road to the day when Senate 
     hawks would tear up the treaty on the Senate floor and remove 
     the last obstacle to building a missile defense system, their 
     ultimate pie in the sky.
       Republicans had been sniping at ABM, calling it ``null and 
     void'' because the Soviet Union, with whom it was negotiated, 
     no longer exists. Clinton will decide next June about going 
     forward with a project about which the only certainty is its 
     astronomical cost. The Russians say they will tolerate no 
     change.
       In this Senate the notion of unilateral withdrawal is a 
     live option. So is a return to a full-throttle arms race and 
     the Cold War. Chafee did not press colleagues on the test 
     ban. He said he understood and shared their reservations 
     about verification and our stockpile but on balance thought 
     the country and the world would be better off if we ratified 
     the treaty.
       Those looking for consolation--Chafee always did in a dark 
     hour--can find a little in the prospect that his death has 
     greatly improved his son Lincoln's chances of succeeding him. 
     Rhode Island is a small state that sent a great man to the 
     Senate, and sympathy for his family is unbounded. Chafee, a 
     pragmatist, would be pleased.

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