[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 98 (Monday, July 24, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H5661]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              TRIBUTE TO LATE CONGRESSMAN THOMAS J. MANTON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I am going to try to speak from the heart, 
and that is what I want to do, because Tom Manton was my friend.
  You know, you get to an age where when you hear eulogies and you 
think that it is someone who lived in the distant past and not one of 
your colleagues or not one of your contemporaries. And even though Tom 
was several years older than me, he was certainly one of my 
contemporaries, because when I came to Congress in 1988, there was no 
one who was warmer and friendlier and opened his door more to me than 
Tom Manton.
  I didn't really know Tom before I came to Congress. I had heard about 
him. He served on the New York City Council while I was serving in the 
New York State assembly, and he had a reputation of being this tough 
guy, maybe a bit gruff, and I didn't really know what to expect. But 
when I got to know Tom, and I got to know him very, very well, I 
learned that under this gruffness was this soft underbelly; that he was 
a very thoughtful and soft-spoken man; a very good person, who really 
cared about people, really cared about his country; a great life smart, 
intelligent man who came out of an ordinary working class family in New 
York City, the way so many of us did, and who worked hard.
  I am sure he was the first person in his family to go to college. He 
went to law school and became a good lawyer. He was a very smart 
intelligent man and he really lived the American dream. That is what so 
many of us have done, children of immigrants and grandchildren of 
immigrants. Well, that is really what Tom Manton did.
  Tom and I became very, very good friends. We were very close. We 
would go out to dinner and talk a lot. I still have a picture hanging 
in my office of Tom and myself taken, I think I was just elected but 
not yet sworn in. I had won the election and Tom signed it and said, 
``The New York delegation is richer with your election.'' And that was 
just the kind of nice thing that he would do, would write it with his 
own handwriting.
  It was Tom who encouraged me to go on the Energy and Commerce 
Committee, which is a great committee but difficult to get on to, and 
Tom encouraged me. He was a member of the committee and encouraged me 
to try for the committee, which I did with his help and support, and 
eventually was made a part of that committee.
  Tom cared about people. He cared about working people and was very 
close to labor. He always had very, very close friends because he 
worked very, very hard for the average person. My colleagues have 
already talked about what a difference he made in people's lives from 
the Irish peace process to just caring about every day people, ordinary 
people back home.
  After he left Congress, he kept in touch and came down several times 
doing some lobbying, doing some work. And whenever you needed him to 
help you, with a campaign contribution or just a good friendly smile or 
some good friendly advice, Tom was always there. That is why he was 
such an effective Democratic county leader of Queens County and why his 
influence really extended beyond his borough, because when people 
wanted to aspire to leadership positions in the New York City council, 
be it speaker or whatever, if you got Tom Manton's blessing, you really 
had a leg up on everybody else in order to achieve that position. And 
Tom really was very effective in doing that.
  When you are a political leader, you make tough decisions. You make 
friends and you make enemies. But everyone knew that Tom Manton was 
always fair and above board. He told you where you stood, and he was 
very, very honest with it. A very, very soft-spoken person who really 
cared about his country, about his state, about his city and, indeed, 
his friends as well.
  I would say to Diane and the rest of the family that our lives are 
all richer because we knew Tom Manton. His memory will live because the 
benefits he provided to his city and his State and his country will 
continue to go on and on.
  I last saw Tom a few years ago during the presidential campaign when 
there was a rally in his borough for John Kerry. And although I have 
spoken with Tom since then, that was actually the last time I had 
physically seen him. And I remember thinking that he didn't look quite 
as good as I had remembered, and from that point on, with his long 
illness, which of course culminated in his death.
  Let me just speak for me, but I think all of us aspire to be the kind 
of person that Tom Manton was, an honest person coming from working 
class roots, a working class family, who understood that by helping 
people, you helped the country and you make a difference in people's 
lives. Tom, I know, is looking down at us, and I want him and his 
family to know that he has made a difference in all of our lives, those 
of us who were fortunate to call him our friend and fortunate enough to 
call him our colleague. But even those people that never met Tom, that 
only knew his name, are better because Tom Manton served in the United 
States Congress and made a difference in their lives as well, a 
difference in everybody's lives in the United States of America.
  I am going to miss my good friend. We are all going to miss him. But 
we are all going to remember him. He is going to live on in our hearts 
and our minds and with the good work he did to make our country a 
better place. God bless you, Tom. We will all miss you, but we will 
never forget you.

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