[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 40 (Friday, April 12, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S2627]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          A SENATE FRIENDSHIP

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, while I disagree with the distinguished 
senior Senator from Hawaii and the senior Senator from Alaska on this 
issue, I am forever amazed at the great relationship of the senior 
Senator from Alaska and the senior Senator from Hawaii.
  We develop friendships in the Senate, and I have no question that my 
friendship with Senator Inouye is one that will last me a lifetime. He 
is such a wonderful man. And I also have such warmth and feelings for 
the senior Senator from Alaska. But with the example that is set by the 
Senator from Alaska and the Senator from Hawaii, in friendship and in 
working together on issues, I am, each year, as a member of the 
Appropriations Committee, stunned by the ability of these two gentlemen 
to move through the Defense appropriations bill the way they do. This 
should take weeks of our debate time in the committee and on the Senate 
floor, but as a result of their working relationship, it is always held 
to just a short period of time.
  So when the history books are written about the Senate, these two 
men, who now stand before me and with me in the Senate--Senator Stevens 
and Senator Inouye--will be known for many things, for doing so many 
good things for our country and for their respective States, but the 
thing I am going to remember is the example of friendship that I see 
between the Senator from Alaska and the Senator from Hawaii. And I do 
not mean in any way to demean the Senator from Hawaii because I know he 
believes in his position not because of friendship but because he 
believes in the merits of the case, as it has, I am sure, something to 
do with the friendship they have. But the relationship of the two 
Senators is, as far as I am concerned, encyclopedic as to how we should 
work with each other in the Senate.

  So on behalf of the Senate, I applaud and congratulate these two 
Senators for the example they set for the rest of us on how civilly the 
Senate should be run--a Democrat from Hawaii, thought of as a liberal 
State in some people's minds, and a Republican from the conservative 
State of Alaska. What we have coming from those two States is two 
people to show us that with different ideologies we can still work 
together for the good of the country.
  So I say to both Senators, thank you very much.

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