[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 52 (Tuesday, April 26, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S4254]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO SENATOR JEFFORDS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I spoke on the floor last week to briefly 
recount some of the many reasons that Vermont and the Nation will miss 
the leadership, the independence and the decency of Senator Jim 
Jeffords when he chooses to retire from the Senate at the end of his 
current term.
  Since then there have been many news articles and editorials that 
have also catalogued and described various aspects of Jim Jeffords' 
distinguished legacy. As is often the case when he writes about the 
events and issues of the day, Emerson Lynn, the publisher of the St. 
Albans Messenger in my home State of Vermont, did this particularly 
well. I would like to share his editorial with the members of the 
Senate.
  I ask unanimous consent that Emerson Lynn's recent editorial about 
Senator Jeffords be printed in the Record
  There being no objection, the editorial was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

             [From the St. Albans Messenger, Apr. 21, 2005]

           Jeffords Leaves Before His Time, Accomplishes Much

       Senator Jim Jeffords, who turned Washington's political 
     world upside down 4 years ago with his defection from the 
     Republican Party, Wednesday turned Vermont's political world 
     upside down with his announcement not to seek reelection.
       He said it was time to begin a new chapter in a life that 
     for 38 years has been dominated by an election cycle that 
     began as a state senator from Rutland in 1967, to Attorney 
     General in 1969, to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974 
     to the United States Senate in 1988. He has represented 
     Vermont in one office or another for almost four decades. If 
     that is a chapter, most our lives can be explained in a 
     paragraph.
       Wednesday's announcement was the sad affirmation of what 
     many of those close to the Senator had feared: his health is 
     less than optimum and his wife, Liz, is battling cancer and 
     about to undergo a third round of chemotherapy. At some point 
     the question is more akin to the clap of thunder to our 
     better senses: is being senator worth one's health; is it 
     worth not being able to pay the proper attention to one's 
     wife who is battling cancer, and, is the twilight of one's 
     life best spent with one's children, and an expected 
     grandchild, or with the churlish likes of Tom DeLay and the 
     hard right that have stolen a sense of civility and class 
     from the Senate? For anyone not suffering from the hubris 
     that often comes attached to the position, the choice is 
     clear and Jim Jeffords made that choice with grace and 
     perspective.
       He also did the honorable thing politically. He announced 
     his retirement with sufficient time for both parties to give 
     thoughtful consideration as to how to approach the November 
     2006 race. He could have waited. He didn't, and in so doing 
     reinforced the integrity that has characterized his career.
       And his has been a remarkable career. The history books 
     will undoubtedly begin their biographies noting the impact of 
     his May, 2001 decision to bolt from a Republican party he 
     said had left its moorings. But the senator's accomplishments 
     extend far beyond one's party allegiance. As Vermont's 
     attorney general he played a pivotal role in the 
     implementation of Act 250, and the law to outlaw billboards. 
     No Vermont politician has had a greater impact on dairy 
     farming, nor does any politician have a better understanding 
     of the industry and its needs. There isn't a single bit of 
     legislation dealing with special education [or education in 
     general] that doesn't have his fingerprints on it in one 
     fashion or another. The same can be said of his years in the 
     Senate when dealing with the environment. He was also a 
     passionate defender of the arts. What he has accomplished 
     will endure beyond fame's notoriously short life.
       It's axiomatic that this was not the choreographed 
     conclusion of his choosing. His desire was to win reelection 
     as an independent, thereby vindicating a personally wrenching 
     decision to leave the Republican Party. Life's bows cannot be 
     so neatly tied and those who try find them but ropes of sand 
     that disintegrate in the twisting.
       Sadly, we are in an age that exploits one's natural 
     fissures as though they were fatal flaws of one's character. 
     One's vulnerabilities are extrapolated into insurmountable 
     deficiencies, as if there were only sun and no shadows, all 
     light, no darkness. The senator knows only too well how that 
     game is played. The Yale/Harvard educated man will be known 
     more for a twisted tongue than a clear mind, as if being 
     articulate were a higher calling than being thoughtful.
       In the end, it's not what others think of you but the joy 
     you carry in your toil. And, in the end, it is Mr. Jeffords 
     that wears the smile, not his accusers. He is like Sisyphus 
     in Albert Camus' ``Myth of Sisyphus'', the character in Greek 
     mythology who was condemned for eternity to roll a boulder up 
     a hill, only to have it roll back down again. Camus made the 
     convincing argument that Sisyphus' lot was not tragic, but 
     uplifting. He could smile at the absurd because he understood 
     it as such.
       Camus concluded by writing: ``I leave Sisyphus at the foot 
     of the mountain! One I always finds one's burden again. But 
     Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods 
     and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This 
     universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither 
     sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral 
     flake of that night filled mountain, in itself forms a world. 
     The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a 
     man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.''
       We imagine Mr. Jeffords' heart is full and that he is 
     happy. He should be remembered as such.
       The clamor to claim his political perch has begun and din, 
     at times, will overwhelm. What Vermonters can hope for is 
     that all followers choose Mr. Jeffords' path of integrity and 
     independence.

                          ____________________