[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 176 (Tuesday, December 9, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S16093-S16094]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO SENATOR PAUL SIMON
Mr. FITZGERALD. Mr. President, it is with great sadness that I rise
to report to my colleagues in the Senate the death of a former Member
of this body, U.S. Senator Paul Simon from Illinois. Senator Simon died
earlier today. He was 75 years old. This comes as a great shock to all
of us who knew and loved Paul Simon.
Earlier today, I had written him a get well note and sent him some
flowers. It was announced a couple of days ago that he was going into
the hospital for heart bypass surgery and also to have a leaky heart
valve replaced. Apparently something happened during the surgery--I
don't know what--but Senator Simon, unfortunately, passed away, and we
all send our love and our prayers to his wife Patty, his children, his
grandchildren, and to all his colleagues at Southern Illinois
University where he will be missed greatly.
Senator Simon's first wife, Jeanne, died a few years ago. I also had
the privilege of knowing her. May God rest her soul as well.
Senator Simon was a nationally known figure, primarily from his
having been a candidate for the Presidency in 1988. In Illinois, he was
truly a giant for many decades--three or four decades or more. He
served both in the State house of representatives and the Illinois
State Senate, as well as in the U.S. Congress and then later in the
U.S. Senate. He is thought to be the only person from Illinois to have
served in both houses of the Illinois Legislature and then in both
Houses of Congress.
He was also in the late sixties and early seventies the Lieutenant
Governor from Illinois. On his last reelection race for the U.S.
Senate, he won by over a million votes, with 65 percent. I believe he
had the highest plurality of anybody running that year.
He was an extraordinary figure, extremely popular, and extremely well
respected, especially for his character and integrity. Many people may
have disagreed with Senator Simon's policy positions on a variety of
issues, but no one ever questioned his ethics and integrity. In fact,
those who served with him in the Senate, I am sure, remember his famous
bow ties. Those bow ties almost became a symbol of ethics and integrity
in the State of Illinois because of Senator Simon. He was a remarkable
man.
He started in the early 1950s--maybe before that; maybe in the late
forties--as a newspaper editor in southern Illinois. He was about 19
years of age when he was asked to take over a troubled newspaper in
Troy, IL, in Madison County. He actually revived the newspaper by going
after a corrupt gambling cabal in Madison County. He ultimately put
together a string of some 13 newspapers that he sold in the 1960s, and
then went from journalism into politics and government service; he
never looked back.
He had numerous legislative accomplishments in the U.S. Senate,
including the Direct Student Loan Program, the job training partnership
amendments, and many other initiatives across a wide spectrum of
issues. Of course, he was very accomplished in the Illinois Legislature
as well.
Some people think they have done a lot when they have read a book.
Senator Simon probably wrote as many books as most people have read. He
is the author of at least 21 books, and maybe more than that. He had 55
honorary degrees. As I mentioned, he was a candidate for President in
1988.
One of the most astonishing things about Paul Simon was that his
ethics and integrity were not just an act. I think a lot of the
professional politicians maybe didn't always appreciate him in Chicago,
for example. They maybe thought his bow tie and his constant efforts to
maintain the highest standards in Illinois and the Federal Government
were an act. But you could see after he retired from the Senate when he
was offered, reportedly by foreign governments, to become a high paying
lobbyist--I think one foreign government offered him over $600,000 a
year to become their lobbyist, and he was offered a variety of
lucrative positions. He turned all that down so he could return to
Makanda, IL, down in the southern part of the State where he came from
so he could teach at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and be
a professor. He turned down higher paying professorships elsewhere in
the country. He wanted to come back home and be at Southern Illinois
University.
He put together a wonderful public policy institute with some others
there, including Mike Lawrence, who was the press secretary to our
former Gov. Jim Edgar in Illinois.
I was in the area down by SIU this past summer. I had dinner with
Mike Lawrence and he was telling me how hard it was to keep up with
Paul Simon. Even at his age, he was keeping a remarkable schedule. So
it came as a great surprise to hear of his passing today. It is a great
loss. We will all miss him.
He was nothing but kind to me. Even though I was a member of the
opposite party, Senator Simon last called me when I announced I would
be retiring from the Senate. He was always courteous and kind in
offering to help everyone he could.
I remembered from long ago reading a column that was written about
Paul Simon, which I thought was a fabulous testament to this wonderful
man. The column was written in the Chicago Tribune on February 28,
1997. It was by R. Bruce Dold, entitled ``In Praise of a Decent Former
Politician.'' This column is written by a journalist who had covered
Senator Simon for many years, including following him around on his
election campaigns and seeing his interaction with people all over the
State of Illinois. This reporter wrote about how he was amazed that
Senator Simon would come into a small town and say hi to everybody, and
he would actually know the names of their children and how their
grandfather was doing.
Senator Simon had a genuine affection for people. He was a tireless
worker. He held over 600 town meetings in his two terms in the Senate,
which is a very tough pace to keep up with for any of us in the Senate.
He was a remarkable man.
I ask unanimous consent that this commentary written by R. Bruce Dold
be printed in the Record immediately following my remarks.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(See exhibit 1.)
Mr. FITZGERALD. I conclude by saying that Senator Paul Simon was a
credit to the State of Illinois and a credit to the Senate, and we will
miss him. God rest his soul and may God bless his widow and family.
Exhibit 1
[From the Chicago Tribune, Feb. 28, 1997]
In Praise of a Decent Former Politician
(By R. Bruce Dold)
One of my best lessons in southern Illinois politics came
with Paul Simon's 1984 campaign for the U.S. Senate, the one
where he dusted Sen. Charles Percy and made amends for his
one big political loss, the 1972 bid for governor.
Simon planned to hit about 13 towns in one day, moving from
Vandalia to Cairo and over to Carbondale, with a brief stop
at his Makanda home to show off his Lincoln book collection
to the handful of reporters with him. He'd be meandering over
a few hundred miles, which normally would require a
helicopter. For Simon, all it required was Joe Bob Pierce.
Joe Bob is something of a Renaissance man--an electric
power lineman with a Baptist divinity school degree who can
drive like a bat out of hell, that last talent being the one
Simon required that day.
So the trip went like this. We would drive to the Franklin
county Courthouse public square, and Simon would give a
little speech, and then he would do the real campaigning.
This amounted to greeting each person in the crowd by her
first name and inquiring about her children and her frail
grandfather, and then moving on to the next soul with a
hearty ``nice to see you.''
Then we would pile into Joe Bob's car and he would hit
triple digit m.p.h. on Rt. 142 until we barreled into the
parking lot of the Saline Valley Conservancy District, where
Simon would do it all over again.
And I realized by the second stop that he actually knew all
of these people, and the ages of their kids, and the health
status of their grandfathers.
Simon wasn't supposed to win that election but he did, in
part because he swept most of Southern Illinois.
He's back home now after ending an impressive career in
politics. He's believed to be the only person who ever served
in the Illinois and U.S. House and Senate.
On paper, his career makes no sense. Before politics, he
was a newspaper editor who shook things up in a part of
Illinois that liked things calm. He was too liberal for his
congressional district, too liberal for this state, too
liberal for Congress. He was a bigger-government advocate in
a little-government era. Didn't matter. People thought he
[[Page S16094]]
cared about them. He won his last Senate race by almost 1
million votes.
A few Washington types, and a few well-known Chicago
politicians, still believe it was an act, that Simon was just
another pol who had perfected a gee-whiz persona and the
public got snookered into buying it. And while I always liked
Paul Simon, I was also suspicious enough of politics in
general to keep alive the prospect that they might be right.
OK, now that he's retired, it's safe to say that they are
wrong.
When Simon left the Senate and there was no electoral
advantage to being pure, he still did the right thing.
He turned down offers to lobby in Washington--one offer was
for $600,000 a year to work for foreign governments. I'm
taking his word on this--there's that suspicion rising again.
But in the years I've known him he hasn't given me reason not
to take his word.
He also turned down several teaching offers at better-known
schools around the country to take a job running the new
Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University in
Carbondale, near his home.
Nobody needs to hold a tag day for him, since he's drawing
$120,000 a year from SIU. But they offered him $140,000 and
he requested a $20,000 cut so he wouldn't be paid more than
the chancellor. That's the kind of gesture that makes the
political cynics snicker, and makes the rest of the world
think Paul Simon is a very decent guy.
Now that Simon's back home and doesn't have to be concerned
about his own elections, he could be more of a political
broker in this state.
He proved he could transfer his credibility and popularity
last year when Richard Durbin was a relatively unknown
central Illinois congressman making his introductions to
Chicagoans at the same time he was asking them to send him to
the Senate. Nobody up here knew Richard Durbin from Richard
Burton. But Simon's endorsement, repeated on television
commercials, was gold. It gave Durbin instant credibility and
carried him to the election.
So Simon could throw his weight around. He intends not to.
Other than supporting Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun's re-election
bid, he's planning to lay low in politics.
He could be a big factor in the Democratic primary for
governor next year. Lots of people want to run. But it looks
like Simon won't play the game. He told me this week he's
been approached by several potential candidates, but doesn't
plan to endorse anybody. He's happy teaching his government
and non-fiction writing courses and doesn't want to taint his
new institute with the smell of partisan politics.
``I anticipate I will be less involved in party activities
than I was before,'' he said. ``I have to be reaching out to
both political parties.''
For a political writer in Chicago, saying something kind
about a politician is akin to volunteering to put a kick-me
sign on your back. But here goes: the people were right all
along, Paul Simon really is a very decent guy.
Mr. FITZGERALD. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, we have all just heard the sad news about
our former colleague, Senator Simon, from the Senator from Illinois.
There will be opportunities in the future for more formal comments from
many Members of the Senate, but I thought this afternoon I would make a
few brief comments about our colleague Paul Simon.
I had the opportunity to serve in the Senate with Paul, but I also
had the opportunity for a few years to serve in the House of
Representatives with Paul. What a treat it was to serve in both bodies
with Paul. Shortly after I came to the House, I discovered that when
Paul Simon came to the well of the House of Representatives, he was
someone to come into the House Chamber and listen to because no matter
what the topic, we could count on the fact that he was going to give a
thoughtful speech. You might agree with him, you might not agree with
him, but you could bet that this man of great integrity had thought
through what he was going to say. You can bet that he truly believed
what he was saying.
Members would listen to Paul Simon, whether it was in the House or
Senate. Paul Simon was a man of great integrity. When he spoke, it was
clear he was a man of great moral clarity in his comments and thoughts.
There was great precision to those thoughts.
We all know that Paul Simon was first, in his career, maybe first and
foremost, a writer. He started, as my colleague from Illinois has just
said, at a newspaper. Some have labeled him as a crusading newspaper
editor. That is how he got his start. He continued to write throughout
his career, writing his columns back to his home State and writing
books.
I was back home in Ohio at the house of my daughter and son-in-law
this past weekend and I happened to look down and there was what I took
to be one of Paul's newest books. I picked it up and read a few pages.
There was Paul again, being very provocative, being very thoughtful. He
made me think. That was Paul.
One of the books Paul wrote many, many years ago continues to be
cited today. Anybody who reads a biography of Abraham Lincoln will find
the work of Paul Simon in that book because, you see, Paul Simon wrote
the definitive book about Abraham Lincoln's time in the Illinois
Legislature. So whatever definitive biography you read of Abraham
Lincoln, it will cite Paul Simon's book for that period of Abraham
Lincoln's life.
Paul Simon was asked once why he wrote the book. He said he had
discovered there just hadn't been a good book written on that period of
Abraham Lincoln's life, so Paul Simon wrote it. He did the research,
dug the information out, and wrote the book. It is still the definitive
book.
Paul Simon was, more than anything else, a teacher. You could see
that in his speeches on the Senate floor and the House floor before
that. You could see that, really, in his columns, his writings. So I
think it is fitting that at the end of his career, as Senator
Fitzgerald said, he went home. He went home to southern Illinois. He
created this great institute at southern Illinois, his home community.
He brought in great speakers, talked about big topics, great topics
that we have to deal with in our country. He headed that up, put it
together, and dealt with those issues.
He ended his life as a teacher, what he really was throughout his
entire career, beginning as a newspaper man: Paul Simon the teacher. So
as he taught us in the Senate, as he taught us in the House of
Representatives, he ended his life as a teacher to young people in his
home of Carbondale, in southern Illinois. I think that is clearly the
way Paul Simon wanted it. I think it is fitting that is how he ended
his life.
This is a sad day for the Senate. It is a sad day, certainly, for
Illinois, and for his country. But we can take joy in this very good
man's life and what he has done for our country and what he ended his
life doing for our young people.
I yield the floor.
Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________