[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 83 (Wednesday, June 16, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S6867]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           A TRIBUTE TO BETTY STRONG: THE POLITICS OF DECENCY

  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to an 
incredible woman. There are a number of benefits that flow, as my 
friend, the Presiding Officer, knows, even from failed Presidential 
efforts seeking to get the nomination as he and I have both done. We 
meet some extraordinary people who put their lives on hold for you 
because they believe in what you are trying to do. There was such a 
woman who just passed away in Iowa, in Sioux City. Her name is Betty 
Strong.
  Theodore Roosevelt said:

       The most practical politics is the politics of decency.

  There was none more practical or more decent than Betty Strong, the 
matriarch of the Democratic politics of Iowa. She was a wonderful woman 
whose friendship and memory I will always cherish and whose friendship 
with her husband I still cherish.
  Anyone who knows Iowa politics--and I know the Presiding Officer 
knows Iowa politics at least from the Republican side of the effort--
knows the name Betty Strong. Senator Harkin and I have been reminiscing 
all day with wonderful stories we have about her. Time will not permit 
me to speak to all of these, but she was a master political craftsman. 
She understood grassroots organizational politics better than anyone. 
She was a community leader in the best sense of the word. She brought 
people together around the process and around the issues.
  She was a woman of uncanny insight and extraordinary good sense, 
basic honest judgment, and something that seems altogether too uncommon 
these days: a depth of good will, unmatched by anyone I have met in 
politics.
  We can find thousands of examples of strong, tough-minded, powerful 
women in our history who have left their mark, big and small, on our 
lives, from Helen Keller to Eleanor Roosevelt. All of them inspired a 
Nation. All of them gave us hope. But few have had as much of a 
personal impact as Betty Strong of Iowa, who just followed her heart, 
got involved, did what she wanted to do, and did what she believed was 
right for the community.
  She was tough, strong, and smart. She started in politics in the 
early 1950s at a time when back rooms were still smoke filled and the 
sound of a woman's voice was a cause for heads to turn. I can only 
imagine that Betty did not hesitate to cut through that smoke and speak 
her mind, even back in the 1950s, and when she did, I imagine she 
caused those old party bosses to turn their heads on more than one 
occasion. When she spoke, everyone listened. I know I did.
  Margaret Thatcher said:

       Success is having a flair for the thing that you are doing, 
     and knowing that it is not enough, you have to work hard and 
     have a sense of purpose.

  Betty was a success because she worked as hard as anyone I have ever 
had the pleasure to work with and she had a powerful sense of purpose. 
She absolutely loved politics as much as she absolutely loved Iowa. She 
loved the process, and everyone respected her for that.
  She was a rare woman who had the depth of an abiding commitment to 
the rough and tumble of organizational door-to-door politics. Boy, did 
she know how to work a room. You had to see her work. She could read 
people. She had, as my mother would say, the sixth sense about how to 
persuade and bring people to her side, how to convince them she was 
right. She was, indeed, a very persuasive woman. There was no doubt 
that when you were with her, you wanted to be on her side.
  But I don't think winning was Betty's real goal. It was not what 
drove her. I think she cared deeply about the fact that people need to 
be engaged and they contribute to making things better, they find a 
cause and take a side, they fight for what is in their heart and their 
gut, and they move the system in the right direction.
  For Betty Strong, it was community that mattered most. It was the 
democratic process she cared about, and she believed that it worked 
best when you have maximum participation.
  That is not to say that she did not have a deeply held set of values 
and beliefs that drove her politics; she did.
  First and foremost, she was a Democrat--a Democrat Democrator, as the 
folks in Alabama used to say: a Yellow Dog Democrat. She had the hash 
marks and battle scars of more than 40 years of engagement to prove it.
  If I had to categorize her politics, I would say she was an old-
fashioned but practical FDR Democrat, an accomplished activist who 
fought on behalf of organized labor and through the Central Labor 
Council for the basic dignity of American workers.
  I remember how she welcomed my wife Jill and me to her home as she 
welcomed a host of Democratic candidates over the years. And she did 
not hesitate to make her opinions known. She did not hesitate to share 
her love and affection with you.
  But partisanship is not a word I think of when I remember Betty 
Strong. The word I think of is ``democracy.'' To watch her in action 
was to understand what Teddy Roosevelt meant when he said, ``the 
politics of decency.'' She was a decent person, as decent as any I have 
ever met in my public life. She was as engaged as she was engaging, as 
warm as she was tough, and as wise as she was shrewd.
  To see her build a coalition, to watch her rally support, was to 
realize that all she wanted to do was bring the best out in people.
  I first met her in 1987. I stayed in contact with her over the entire 
time until her death. She was a friend of mine, a friend of Senator 
Harkin's, and a friend of many of us here.
  I only wish we had more like her in both parties. You have them in 
your party, as I have them in mine. And, God, they are beloved. They 
are beloved people. But it seems like the generation is passing of the 
people who made the commitment she made.
  She knew all politics was local, but she also knew local politics 
made up what this Nation is. She was a nation builder. She was a great 
woman. I miss her. Our sympathies to Darrell and her family.
  I thank the Chair and I thank my colleagues for their graciousness. I 
yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.

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