[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 82 (Thursday, June 5, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7417-S7418]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SENATOR DOLE'S MAIDEN SPEECH

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am aware that the distinguished Senator 
from North Carolina is going to make her maiden speech today. I haven't 
had the opportunity to say to her privately what I will say publicly, 
and that is my fault. But I simply say that we have this big horserace 
coming up this Saturday--the Belmont Stakes--and we talked about the 
pedigree of the horses that are going to be running that race. Rarely 
in the history of the Senate has there been anyone come with a pedigree 
of the Senator from North Carolina. She not only has a distinguished 
husband with whom we all served here in the Senate who was so direct 
and so full of humor and so full of wisdom, and a person we still miss 
today, but being a Senator in her own right, she has a pedigree that is 
basically unsurpassed: A person who served as a Cabinet officer on at 
least two separate occasions, who served in other capacities in the 
White House, and who was so good in her capacity as head of the 
International Red Cross, doing work all over the world that is still 
being done as a result of her leadership.
  The Senate is certainly favored with her presence, and I look 
forward, as does all of the Senate, to hearing her maiden speech today.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, let me also say that had Senator Dole 
not recruited my wife to come into government, I never would have met 
her. So in addition to all of her substantial accomplishments, she also 
has made extraordinarily good hiring decisions over the years and 
brought outstanding

[[Page S7418]]

people to Washington, and particularly outstanding women.
  We are here today to listen to her maiden speech. She enters the 
Senate with an extraordinary record, as the Senator from Nevada has 
pointed out, that goes far beyond what most of us did when we came 
here. She has already made an important contribution to this body.
  I yield the floor.

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