[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 178 (Thursday, December 20, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14045-S14046]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  THE PRESIDING OFFICER OF THE SENATE

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, first I thank our Presiding Officer, the 
Senator from New Jersey. He always has a clean desk. What does that 
mean? That

[[Page S14046]]

means he is paying attention to what is going on in the Senate. He is 
not at the desk reading a magazine or a piece of paper, a newspaper. He 
is alert. I watched him. This is the way he always presides. That is 
the way Presiding Officers ought to conduct themselves when gracing 
that desk in this, the greatest legislative, parliamentary, 
deliberative body in the world.
  He does it with a great dignity and style. I thank him. He sits there 
many evenings at this hour when most Senators have gone on their 
separate ways. I thank him.
  I thank the other Members of the new class--I say it in that 
fashion--who have worked at that desk. There are some of them--I will 
not call their names at the moment--who make me proud of the Senate. 
The fact is, the way they preside is a model for legislative bodies 
everywhere to watch. Too often as we sit in that chair, we forget that 
millions of people are watching the Senate. They are watching the 
Chair.
  I have been a member of the State legislature in West Virginia and 
the West Virginia House of Delegates. Those people in the State 
legislatures watch the Presiding Officer of this body.
  This is the premier upper house in the world. They should see the 
premier act of presiding on the part of the Senator who sits at that 
desk. Teachers, college professors, students, political column writers, 
and editorialists watch. We ought to remember that when we are sitting 
in that chair.
  I congratulate the Presiding Officer. I congratulate Senator Corzine. 
I thank him.

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