[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 111 (Tuesday, September 19, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H7734]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               TRIBUTE TO SENATOR DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 19, 1999, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WALSH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join in the tribute to our 
good friend and our distinguished Senator from New York, Daniel Patrick 
Moynihan; and I congratulate my colleague, the gentlewoman from New 
York (Mrs. Maloney), for helping to organize this fitting tribute. It 
is fitting in many senses, not the least of which is its 
bipartisanship.
  I begin by paraphrasing the great William Shakespeare's play Julius 
Caesar: We have come not to bury the Senator, but to praise him.
  New York has great pride in Senator Moynihan and his career. A native 
son, he began his life in Hell's Kitchen. That crucible of Hell's 
Kitchen helped to create the character that is now our great Senator.
  George Will's column recently was an excellent explanation of his 
distinguished career, but there are many points that I think all of us 
have some identity with. Certainly the fact that he spends his summers 
in Pindar's Corners in upstate New York shows that he is a Senator for 
the entire State.
  In New York State, we have what is commonly referred to as upstate 
and down state. Now, the people from down state, which we think of as 
New York City, refer to everything north of the Bronx as upstate, or as 
everybody from upstate refers to everything in the five bureaus and 
Long Island as down state.
  I would like to think of Senator Moynihan as being from mid-state. He 
has always defied that upstate-down state divide. There are a couple of 
songs that sort of sum up New York. Billy Joel wrote and sang a song 
called New York State of Mind. I prefer that to Frank Sinatra's New 
York, New York. New York, New York is a little presumptuous. The New 
York State of Mind I think explains perhaps the Senator, not playing 
the partisan role, not taking upstate versus down state, urban versus 
rural, or even domestic versus foreign in our policies. He has somehow 
avoided that trap.
  Just as he did with many, many issues, you can describe him as a man 
for all seasons, a renaissance man; but certainly he has fulfilled 
many, many roles throughout his successful life.
  As ambassador to India, he helped to bridge a gap between the world's 
two greatest democracies. India, for some reason, never saw itself as a 
friend of the United States until Senator Moynihan served there with 
distinction and helped to create that bridge which we saw somewhat 
fulfilled the other day when Prime Minister Vajpayee spoke here before 
the United States Congress, a very important role for 2 great peoples. 
He served in the cabinet in many administrations, as a professor in my 
hometown at Syracuse University, as United States ambassador. What a 
tremendous resume.
  He was able to take on issues that few others would be willing to 
enter into the fray. We have a tremendous environmental issue up home 
in my hometown, Onondaga Lake. He looked at the factions that divided 
the cure for that problem and pointed at all of them and said you are 
all wrong. We need to get to work on this. He helped me as a Republican 
bring in the Army Corps of Engineers to play a major role.
  I remember the first meeting we had with the Army Corps, and he said 
to the colonel who was going to take over this project, he said, this 
project can make a general out of you if you do a good job. Well, he is 
no longer on the job, but the job has begun and the lake is cleaner 
already. I owe my partner a great deal and the community does too.
  The Erie Canal, the legacy of New York State which strung all of the 
pearls of the upstate cities together along this waterway, we are 
restoring that. We are recreating it; we are redeveloping it.
  He was never shy about pointing out the peccadillos of our leaders, 
to his credit. He had a knack for reducing complex issues to the nut of 
the problem. But, on the other hand, he could also philosophize and wax 
thoughtfully and embellish. There was a saying when Moynihan and 
D'Amato were the Senators, if you wanted to get the history of 
immigration in the United States, you saw Moynihan. If you wanted a 
passport, you saw D'Amato.
  That tells you a little bit about the man.
  Somehow, he has managed over the years to avoid the slings and arrows 
of outrageous editorial writers, although I am sure he could point out 
a time or two when they took them on. I don't think too many of them 
were smart enough to take him on. He will be remembered for his witness 
and wisdom, for his devotion to his beloved wife, Liz, for his 6 
decades of public service, for his pithy comments, but mostly for his 
honesty and integrity.

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