[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 135 (Friday, December 8, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S11845]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             LAST FAREWELL

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today we were able to finish up our work in 
a very successful way before we leave for the year. We passed a 
continuing funding resolution, the critical tax extenders package, and 
a number of important legislative items, as well as a list of executive 
nominations. We have had a long week--a productive week--and I do want 
to thank all my colleagues for their patience and their dedicated 
efforts.
  As we close, I also want to thank all of the staff at the desk and 
those in the offices above this Chamber and below this Chamber who will 
be here long after we adjourn, preparing and finalizing all of the 
business we have just completed.
  I would be remiss if I did not recognize the pages who are with us 
tonight, and those who are not with us tonight, but those who have all 
left their home States to come to Washington for the semester to work 
in this Chamber.
  We thank each and every one of you for your tremendous, tremendous 
work. It is 4:34 a.m. now, and we have finished a long day, and people 
always laugh when I say being Senate majority leader is like doing 
heart transplants. But times like this make it all very clear that they 
are very similar because at about 4:34 a.m. in the morning, we would be 
putting those last few stitches in the transplanted heart. And as you 
do that, you begin to feel that anticipation of that heart, all of a 
sudden starting to beat again and coming alive, which gives new life 
and rebirth to an individual who would otherwise die.
  I say that because that is what I would be doing if I were not here, 
and I was doing 12, 13 years ago. I may well be doing it next year. But 
that sort of change is good. And change can be, as I said yesterday, 
constructive. It can be rebirth. And it can give real hope.
  I gave my formal remarks on leaving the Senate yesterday, but the 
words I speak over the next 2 minutes are the very last I will ever 
give in this Chamber. In 2 minutes, maybe less, that door closes, and 
the chapter ends.
  After I gave my farewell address yesterday, I had dinner last night 
with Karyn and with my three boys, Jonathan, Bryan, and Harrison, who 
had all come back to hear my farewell address yesterday. They had to 
fly in from New York, take a train from New Jersey, and come up from 
Tennessee. And because we are empty nesters, they are all out of the 
house now. It is getting increasingly rare that we are all together.
  But one of the things we did last night is we sat around a table--it 
happened to be at a restaurant--and thought a little bit about past 
experiences. And you can imagine how their lives have changed over 12 
years. We knew this night would come, this final minute or so would 
come, for a long time. I have known for 12 years, and that is the 
normal life cycle that one can expect if you are a citizen legislator, 
which I have said again and again that is what I tried to be in self-
limiting my period here in the Senate.
  But over that period, we have seen these three young boys--all very 
young--grow into three robust young men. I have seen a wife grow more 
beautiful by the day. I have seen a relationship of family, and a 
relationship between a husband and a wife, grow stronger over these 12 
years through this opportunity the people of Tennessee have given me 
and Karyn and my three boys to serve them.
  I have seen faith strengthened and challenged by the responsibility 
the people of Tennessee give us as elected officials when they select 
us to represent their hopes and their dreams.
  I have also seen in this body, in watching my colleagues and being 
with my colleagues, a group of men and a group of women who are very 
good people, with good intentions, who are unselfish, who are people of 
faith, people of vision, people with real dreams, not perfect, as we 
all know--and we all have our foibles, and we all have our weaknesses--
but people who are good.
  My dad always used to say: ``Good people beget good people.'' ``Good 
people beget good people.'' And I think that as we go through periods 
of change here, we can have that tradition of good people in this body 
begetting good people to continue.
  I will close, again quoting from Dad's letter I mentioned yesterday 
that he wrote to future generations prior to his death.
  I mentioned yesterday that that is a great thing for all of us to do 
later in life. What advice would you give people you will never see a 
generation or two generations later? I will close with his words from 
that same letter. This was after a list of things he wrote, giving his 
counsel and advice--very simple things, by the way, commonsense things. 
He said:

       Finally, I believe it is so terribly important in life to 
     stay humble. Use your talents wisely and use other people's 
     talents to help other people.

  ``Help other people.''

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