[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 151 (Friday, December 8, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S11751]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          SENATE RELATIONSHIPS

  Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, yesterday morning, without any notice to 
this Senator, my distinguished colleague from Washington, Senator 
Murray, came to the floor to congratulate me in my career in the Senate 
in a most generous and gracious fashion and to yield time to other 
Senators for the same purpose.
  Each of them, including the other Senator present, Mr. Burns, was 
more than generous and profuse in their praise. The experience of 
listening to it in my office bore some resemblance to attending one's 
own wake. But, nonetheless, the many fine things that were stated about 
my career by Members on both sides of the aisle is deeply appreciated.
  I reflected a little bit later on the fact that while our public 
image--and, for that matter, our public duties--has to deal with 
profound political and social questions of public policy, our personal 
relationships among the 100 Members is something really quite 
different. Each of us leaves the others with strong impressions. 
Friendships become both broad and deep during the course of a career 
here in the Senate. When one comes to the end of such a career, it is 
those personal relationships, in my view, that are the most deep and 
most profound and that have the greatest effect on one as an 
individual.
  To listen to expressions from people who are not accustomed to 
speaking emotionally or personally is an extremely moving experience. 
For that reason, as close as each of those individuals was to me, I 
don't want to mention them by name but simply express my thanks and my 
appreciation for all they said. Those friendships, of course, will 
continue in most cases through a lifetime.

  Relationships of necessity are really quite different.
  There is, however, one other set of relationships about which I 
should like to speak very briefly, and that is the relationship between 
a Member of this body and his or her staff, both present and past. I 
think I can say unequivocally that quite profoundly I am and have been 
a creature of my staff over the period of my entire 18 years in this 
body.
  My proudest achievement is that so many young people--almost all from 
my own State--have worked for a great or shorter period of time on my 
staff either here or in the State of Washington. The great majority of 
them, of course, have already gone on to other careers--most of them in 
the State, a return that I find particularly gratifying.
  If I have a legacy--I think in many respects if any of us has a true 
legacy over the years--the best of all the bills we have gotten passed 
and almost inevitably amended within a relatively short period of 
time--that legacy is the young people to whom we have given a start 
here in highly responsible positions, working on important matters of 
public policy and dealing with dozens, hundreds, and even thousands of 
the constituents whom we represent, growing in not only thoughtfulness 
but responsibility during that period of time.
  For me, the great legacy for generations to come will be the new, 
young, and maturing people who have worked for me during the course of 
these 18 years. I have every hope that at some time in the not too 
distant future at least one of them may appear in this body as a 
Member. And certainly I am of the belief that many of them will appear 
in my State and other States in positions of increasing responsibility 
in a lifetime that will have been marked by our association together.
  I thank my colleagues. I thank the staff here and of the Senate 
itself in this Chamber, but most particularly the hundreds of young 
people who have worked for and with me during the course of the last 18 
years.

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