[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 167 (Wednesday, December 21, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S14304]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               FOURTH TERM FOR MAYOR TOM MENINO OF BOSTON

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I welcome this opportunity to 
congratulate our outstanding mayor in Boston, Tom Menino, on his 
reelection last month. The people of Boston love Tom, and for good 
reason.
  Running for his fourth full term as mayor, Tom received an incredible 
68 percent of the vote on election day, an extraordinary new mandate to 
continue his leadership that has meant so much to our city.
  Tom is Boston's modern FDR, and at the end of this term he will 
become the longest serving mayor in Boston's 375-year history.
  It is a distinction Tom Menino has earned through his unwavering 
dedication and commitment to the people of Boston.
  For 12 years, Mayor Menino has worked day in and day out to unite our 
diverse city, make its neighborhoods and communities stronger, create 
fertile opportunities for businesses, and improve the quality of life 
for all the people of Boston.
  He has fought to protect and expand housing for low-income families 
in the midst of the Nation's tightest housing market. He has never 
stopped working to meet the needs and protect the basic rights of every 
resident of our city--regardless of their race or background.
  He has been a pioneer in education, creating Read Boston to help 
every child read at grade level by third grade and the Afterschool for 
All partnership so that learning doesn't end once school lets out for 
the day. He has fought to close the achievement gap for all of Boston's 
children and made Boston the first urban school district to have every 
school wired to the Internet.
  Tom Menino has proven that America's great urban areas can succeed 
and thrive in this new economy, at a time when more and more of our 
Nation seems headed for the suburbs. Tom modestly describes himself as 
an urban mechanic, but it is far more accurate to say that he is an 
urban genius. Each day, he adds new proof that there are second and 
third acts for America's cities in our modern Nation.
  Above all, Mayor Tom Menino has always worked tirelessly to ensure 
that Boston's brightest days lie ahead and that our city will continue 
to build on its incomparable history.
  Tom has worked especially closely with our local colleges and 
universities to make certain that Boston remains the most prestigious 
destination in America for young men and women seeking excellence in 
higher education.
  He has welcomed our burgeoning biotech and medical research sectors 
in order to guarantee that Boston stays at the cutting edge of these 
highly promising industries of the future. This new century may well be 
the century of the life sciences, and Tom Menino is making sure that 
Boston helps write that history.
  Next year marks the 100th anniversary of the inauguration of another 
visionary Mayor of Boston, my grandfather, John F. Fitzgerald, whose 
love of our city was legendary and whose commitment to progress was 
unchallenged.
  Grampa Fitzgerald might not immediately recognize modern Boston as 
his beloved hometown, but he would be thoroughly at home with its 
vitality and its spirit of innovation, progress, and opportunity. Those 
qualities he fought so hard for a century ago are alive and well today, 
an he would be grateful that the city he loved so dearly is now in the 
capable hands of Mayor Tom Menino.
  In the years ahead, I look forward to continuing to work with Mayor 
Menino to find solutions to the real and often daunting challenges 
facing Boston and all of urban America. No one is more committed to 
solving the big issues than Tom Menino.
  He and his extraordinary wife Angela have made a remarkable team for 
Boston, and all of us in the city look forward very much to more of the 
unique brand of Menino leadership in the years ahead.

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