[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 154 (Thursday, December 14, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11800-S11801]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            NEVER FORGOTTEN

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, soon, the 106th Congress will draw to a 
close, and with that final bell, the Senate careers of a number of very 
fine Members will also, suddenly, draw to a close. Such are the wages 
of service in this Republic. Senator Robb, Senator Gorton, Senator 
Grams, Senator Ashcroft, Senator Abraham will have answered their final 
rollcall. They will have waited through their final quorum calls and 
they will have left the Senate floor, as a Member of this body, for a 
final time. Oh, they may be back to visit, and I hope they will come 
back to visit. They will always be welcome here. But I am sure that the 
Senate floor is not quite the same when one is not allowed to vote or 
to make a statement.
  However, these distinguished Members will always be a unique part of 
the Senate family and of the Senate's history. In the history of this 
great Republic--I do not speak of it as a democracy, I speak of it as a 
Republic; as a representative democracy, yes--in the history of this 
great Republic, there have only been 1,853 men and women who have 
served here since April 6 of 1789. In January 2001, that number will 
rise to 1,864. These names can be found listed in rank order, a list 
that is immutable and irreplaceable.

  More than that, each Senator becomes a part of the institution of the 
Senate. Each Member's actions help to shape the precedents and the 
practices of the Senate, just as a Member's amendments, bills, and 
votes shape the legislative history of the land. The singular honor of 
serving in the United States Senate leaves its mark on each Member. I 
am tempted to say that each Member leaves his or her mark on the 
Senate, but that would not be accurate. Few Senators perhaps leave 
their mark on the Senate, but the Senate leaves its mark, unblemished, 
unstained, on the life of every Member.
  I wish today to speak of two of these departing Senators with whom I 
have worked closely over the years: Senator Charles ``Chuck'' Robb and 
Senator Slade Gorton. Senator Gorton's number among the roll of 
Senators is 1,752. Senator Robb's number is 1,788. They are listed on 
the roll of Members of the United States Senate. Senator Robb, Senator 
Gorton, and the other departing Members, will carry the badge of Senate 
service with them. It is a badge of honor that they will carry with 
them.
  These men are much more than a name or a number, of course. Senator 
Robb has been a dedicated public servant. He has served his country in 
many ways. I have served with him on the Senate Committee on Armed 
Services where he was most recently the ranking member of the 
Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support. He was also a member 
of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and he was for many 
years a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
  As a former marine, as well as a representative of a Commonwealth 
with a very large military presence, Senator Robb was a tireless 
advocate for the men and the women who labor in uniform and in other 
intelligence and supporting roles to protect our great Nation. Senator 
Robb has also sought to protect and further the economic health of the 
Nation.
  He has served this Nation in many ways, from active duty as a United 
States Marine to Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia to United 
States Senator. To his service here, he has brought a conscience. He 
charted his own course, made his own votes and his decisions using his 
moral compass rather than polls or media campaigns.
  I will always remember Senator Robb for his gentle courtesy, his calm 
and even manner, his soft-spoken ways. Though passionate in his 
beliefs, he worked quietly and steadily in a bipartisan spirit to 
achieve his goals. The State of Virginia is better off today for his 
efforts in the Senate, and the Senate has been the better for his 
presence. Now, to Senator Gorton.
  Senator Slade Gorton knows something about leaving the Senate, having 
left once before in 1987, only to return 2 years later to serve from 
1989 through the end of the 106th Congress. I have been his ranking 
member on the Senate Committee on Appropriations. I am here to say that 
I could not have had a better partner than the distinguished

[[Page S11801]]

Senator from Washington. Of course, I have said that many times before. 
In these past years, he has been the wheel horse of our team, putting 
his shoulder to the wheel and pulling the heavy load of 
putting together the complex Interior appropriations bill. He has shown 
himself to be a master of the appropriations process, and no one, I 
venture to say, knows the Interior appropriations bill and the programs 
it funds better than Slade Gorton does. Senator Gorton has a truly 
impressive grasp of detail, and yet he never lets minutiae cloud his 
vision of the overall picture. I could not have asked for a more 
congenial, collegial, commonsense colleague, and I will truly miss my 
friend, Slade Gorton, on the committee.

  I know that the rest of the Senate will miss our colleague from 
Washington as well. He is well liked on both sides of the aisle as 
gracious, polite, soft spoken. He never rebukes a colleague. Rather, he 
will look up, blink in polite astonishment, and with a gentle question 
point out the error of one's ways.
  Senator Gorton is another example of a Member who makes the Senate 
work by focusing on the needs of his constituents. Besides his work on 
the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee and throughout the entire 
appropriations process, Senator Gorton looked after the interests of 
Washington State from his seat on the Committee on Commerce, Science, 
and Transportation where he chaired the Subcommittee on Aviation and 
also served on the Subcommittee on Oceans and Fisheries, both important 
to a coastal State that is home to Boeing Aviation.
  He also served as the vice chair, the vice chairman--Mr. President, I 
break my sentence. I do not believe in this nonsense. I do not believe 
in this nonsense called political correctness. I have no use for it 
whatsoever. There is a chair right there across the aisle; here is a 
chair beside me. There is a difference between a chairman and a chair. 
I do not subscribe to the word ``chair'' except where it is appropriate 
to use it, and I never refer to a human being as a ``chair.'' I do not 
want anyone referring to me as a ``chair.''
  Senator Gorton also served as the vice chairman of the Subcommittee 
on Water and Power on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee--again 
topics of interest to his State with significant hydropower concerns. 
And if these duties did not keep him busy enough, Senator Gorton also 
served on the Senate Budget Committee.
  Senator Gorton's focus serves the Senate well. In defending the 
different perspectives of States large and small, populous or not, 
rural or urban, individual Senators act as the kind of internal checks 
and balances that the framers envisioned, keeping the tyranny of a 
majority from putting other groups and interests at a disadvantage.
  The Senate is designed to give States an equal voice and equal 
standing, despite differences among the States with respect to 
population.
  I shall especially miss Senator Gorton because we worked very closely 
together on the Appropriations Committee. It was a very busy 
subcommittee. It is a westerner's subcommittee, in fact. That is the 
way I have always looked upon it, although I have found it to be very 
important, as well, to States of the East and South and North.
  I wish him well. I will miss him. As an able and talented man, he 
will soon find new venues in which to continue serving the public 
interest.
  He traveled all across this country, he and his family, on bicycles 
upon one occasion some years ago, from the west coast to the east 
coast, the whole family, on bicycles. So one might easily imagine what 
kind of adventurer Slade Gorton is. That takes a lot of courage, a lot 
of determination. But wherever he goes, and wherever Senator Robb goes, 
wherever these other Senators whose names I have mentioned go, they 
will always be called ``Senator.'' Majorian, in 457 A.D., when he was 
made emperor of the West, referred to himself as ``a prince who still 
glories in the name of Senator.''
  Mr. President, I close with a few lines from a poem by Ralph Waldo 
Emerson. It is a fitting tribute to the fine, lasting work performed in 
this mighty Senate by these departing Members: Senator Robb, Senator 
Gorton, Senator Grams, Senator Ashcroft, and Senator Abraham. I am 
speaking of these Senators. There are other Senators who are departing 
and about whom I have spoken previously. Senators whose names I have 
mentioned today are Senators who were in the most recent election, who 
fought nobly and well, and who lost.

  What makes a nation's pillars high
  And its foundations strong?
  What makes it mighty to defy
  The foes that round it throng?

  It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
  Go down in battle shock;
  Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
  Not on abiding rock.

  Is it the sword? Ask the red dust
  Of empires passed away;
  The blood has turned their stones to rust,
  Their glory to decay.

  And is it pride? Ah, that bright crown
  Has seemed to nations sweet;
  But God has struck its luster down
  In ashes at His feet.

  Not gold but only men can make
  A people great and strong;
  Men who for truth and honor's sake
  Stand fast and suffer long.

  Brave men who work while others sleep,
  Who dare while others fly--
  They build a nation's pillars deep
  And lift them to the sky.

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