[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 33 (Tuesday, February 27, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H1949-H1952]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                HONORING FORMER CONGRESSMAN GENE SNYDER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Braley of Iowa). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. 
Davis) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority 
leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their 
remarks and include extraneous material thereon.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Kentucky?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. The subject of our Special Order tonight is to 
remember a great man of this Chamber and a great Kentuckian and a great 
person, a friend to virtually all who knew him. Mr. Speaker, I rise 
tonight to pay tribute to my friend and fellow Kentuckian, Congressman 
Gene Snyder.
  Born in Louisville, Gene Snyder began his political career in 1954 as 
a city attorney for Jeffersontown, Kentucky, at the age of 26. In 1962 
he ran for Congress and was elected to represent the Third District of 
Kentucky. After losing his bid for reelection in 1964, he turned right 
around and ran again in 1966. This time, he was elected to the seat 
that I now hold from Kentucky's Fourth District.
  He went on to serve Kentucky and the Nation for another 20 years 
until his retirement in 1986, bringing a record of credit upon his 
office and doing great service to the people of Kentucky's Fourth 
District. Gene had a tireless work ethic, both in Washington and in 
Kentucky's Fourth District. He was a master political operator and 
strategist, and his dedication to the conservative cause was without 
equal in the 1960s and 1970s.
  He stood by Barry Goldwater for President and was swept out of office 
in the 1964 Johnson landslide, only to return 2 years later.
  I can personally relate to that and Gene's character and his 
persistence, having lost my first election and announcing on election 
night that I was running again and getting up the next morning and 
going to work for 2 more years to win and to make a difference.
  Gene was a great example with his work ethic, with his character, 
with his devotion and his tenacity. He enjoyed campaigning, and he 
relayed to me stories of many people who cut their proverbial teeth on 
his campaigns. I have heard stories literally from hundreds of people 
across the old Fourth District who remember him, who remember meeting 
with him.
  He worked and reaped the benefits for those who followed him in 
office. He laid a foundation for those of us in the delegation who came 
after him. Ground work for a strong Republican Party in the Fourth 
District, campaigning was not something that Gene did every 2 years. It 
was a life-style for him.
  He was in a constant state of campaigning, reaching out, building 
friendships, reaching across the aisle, reaching across the fence on an 
arm, across the wire at the county fair, meeting people in storefronts. 
He used to tell me how on Saturdays he would often get in his car when 
he was back in the district and drive Highway 42 from Pewee Valley 
where he lived on up towards northern Kentucky, stopping in small 
coffee shops, in storefronts to visit with ordinary people.
  He was a man without pretense, one who people simply knew as Gene. 
Everyone from our region still remembers Gene's famous campaign jingle, 
and more than one person has nostalgically sung the whole song to me 
word for word since I got into politics in 2001. We have heard those 
words: ``Vote for Gene Snyder. He is your working Congressman.''
  In fact as recently as the last few years, that jingle, which has not 
been used in a campaign since 1984, was still considered the best 
political song in the radio stations in Louisville. Gene thoroughly 
enjoyed interacting with his constituents, and his enthusiasm for his 
job showed in his ability to recall the names of thousands with whom he 
came in contact.
  Even more telling was the fact that many of his constituents simply 
knew him as Gene. They never knew the fact that their Gene was 
considered by columnist Jack Anderson here in Washington as one of the 
10 most influential Members of the House of Representatives because of 
his work ethic, because of his knowledge of the rules, his knowledge of 
policy and procedure, and the commitment that he made to the citizens 
of his district and to this country.
  During his time in the House, Gene was an unyielding force whose 
visionary efforts laid the groundwork to improve our region and the 
lives of Kentuckians for generations to come. Though a fiscal 
conservative through and through, he worked tirelessly to bring Federal 
funds back to Kentucky and the Fourth District.
  He did this for one purpose: he understood the value of investment 
and meaningful infrastructure for economic growth, to lay a foundation 
for job creation in the future. The key to that is what we see today, 
areas that were farm fields 25 years ago, 20 years ago, 15 years ago 
have born the fruits of his investment, the seeds of his vision that 
were planted in economic development and economic growth that has made 
this area the Fourth District from the eastern part of Louisville up 
through northern Kentucky one of the greatest technology growth 
corridors in the Commonwealth and also in the Ohio Valley.
  When my friend Rick Robinson, the new legislative director for Gene's 
successor, now Senator Jim Bunning, attended a Congressional Research 
Service briefing on policy and procedure as a new congressional 
staffer, he told me recently that many of the examples that were cited 
by the instructors on parliamentary procedure, on the rules, on the way 
the House of Representatives works were all centered around Gene Snyder 
and his efforts, his example of being able to build momentum, his 
example of being able to force an issue when it was necessary or deter 
or slow one down and that it was not going to be productive for his 
party or for the citizens of the Fourth District.
  It is rumored that when he would walk into the committee with the 
Jefferson rules, the rules of the House under one arm, the chairman 
would simply lean over and ask him, Well, Gene, what do you want this 
time? As a member of the Public Works and Transportation Committee, he 
helped secure Federal funding for critical transportation 
infrastructure in Kentucky.
  Some of Gene's projects included the Big Mac Bridge of I-471 from 
Newport over to Cincinnati dedicated in 1981, Clay Wade Bailey Bridge 
from Covington to Cincinnati, which opened in 1971. He also secured 
Federal dollars to protect Bellevue and Dayton from flood waters of the 
Ohio River. He was responsible for creative engineering to bring about, 
from a legislative perspective, the construction of the bridge over the 
Markland Dam.
  I would like to highlight his creativity on these for a moment. Gene 
was a man who built relationships and friendships on both sides of the 
aisle. He was known for his card games. He was known for a happy hour 
that he ran out of his office in the days of the old House.
  In fact, he told me late one night at his house years ago, the story 
of how the I-471 bridge came about. He said to me, he said, Geoff, how 
do you think we got that bridge? Answering as somebody from the 
outside, I said, Well, I figure you had the studies from the Corps of 
Engineers and the economic impact and the designs and the budget. He 
laughed and he said, No, it was the happy hour that got Newport, 
Kentucky, that bridge.
  He told me how Tip O'Neill, who was a good friend of his, would 
regularly come by, the Speaker of the House, to his office, sit with 
him, play cards, have an occasional drink. One night he had come by, 
had a few drinks and sat back in Gene's chair, and the Speaker put his 
feet up on the desk and said, Gene, you've got your bridge. He built 
relationships to get results. He built partnerships for success on both 
sides of the aisle in the House of Representatives.

                              {time}  2115

  Markland Lock and Dam is another area that illustrates his creativity 
in legislation. He made a comment to me on another conversation and he 
said, you have got to make sure you have

[[Page H1950]]

got a legislative director who knows how to read the rules and the laws 
governing every aspect of projects or investments that you want to make 
in your district, on guiding legislation that will benefit our 
citizens. And he cited this as an example. Southern Indiana and the 
Central Part of the Fourth District near Carrollton and Gallatin County 
were suffering economically. He was seeking for a way to link that 
north and south commerce across the river.
  What was there was the Markland Lock and Dam, a Corps of Engineers 
structure that had no bridge. He set his legislative director to work, 
and his legislative counsel researched for several weeks and came about 
with an arcane statute from the late 1800s that stated that not a 
bridge, but an access road could be placed across a Corps of Engineers 
structure. So laughingly, late in the night he said to me, Geoff, that 
is not a bridge down there on the Markland Dam that links Indiana and 
Kentucky. That is an access road. And if you go and look carefully you 
will see that.
  Well, I drove down there after that conversation just to see for 
myself, and I started to laugh as I looked and I saw a freestanding 
bridge simply bolted to the dam. And I think it was is that type of 
creativity that made a difference, and that dam still today is creating 
jobs and creating commerce and linking communities on both sides of the 
Ohio River to the benefit of generations that have come after him.
  He secured Federal dollars for a wide variety of projects. Probably 
the two of his better known legacies are the beltway around Louisville 
and the Federal courthouse that both bear his name.
  Gene was an extremely down-to-earth man. He was without pretense. 
Literally, what you saw was what you got with him. The only thing that 
he ever wanted to be named for him was the Federal courthouse in 
Louisville. This was situated directly across the street from the 
Louisville Courier Journal, his long time media nemesis and frankly, 
the media nemesis of Republicans for over a generation. Gene told me 
that he was thrilled that day and when that opportunity came along, 
that the editors who so longed to opine against him and his fellow 
Republicans would have to look at the name of Gene Snyder every day as 
they left the employees entrance of the Louisville Courier Journal to 
see the Gene Snyder United States Courthouse.
  Ironically, not long after that conversation, one of those editors 
who was still working for the Courier Journal told me he figured Gene 
had the building named after himself just to aggravate that specific 
editor at the Journal.
  In 2005, I was proud to carry on the Gene Snyder tradition with a 
legacy for him to name a new intern fellowship program after him. 
Working in conjunction with Kentucky University, Northern Kentucky 
University and Thomas Moore College, my office has had the privilege of 
bringing talented students interested in politics to work full-time for 
a semester in Washington, D.C. to see the people's House from the 
inside, to see that it is not all the writings in a civics book, but it 
is relationships, it is friendships, it is a process that the Founders 
gave us to move our government forward and to move the Nation forward.
  I thought long and hard about approaching him on the name, and I 
finally called him and I asked him if I could use his name. And I said, 
Congressman, we would be honored if we could name this program after 
you, the Gene Snyder Congressional Internship. He stopped for a moment 
and he said, well that sounds mighty fine. And then he said, you know, 
no, Geoff, you need to name that after yourself. And I was taken aback 
as a freshman congressman when he said that.
  We talked back and forth for a little bit and I finally shared with 
him that I felt it would be not only somewhat ostentatious and vain for 
a first time congressman to name an internship program after himself, I 
just felt it would be inappropriate because of the legacy that 
Congressman Snyder had. And he stopped and he said, you know, you are 
right, Geoff. Naming it after yourself may cause you some problems. So 
you go ahead and name it after me. I burst out laughing on the phone 
and I said Congressman, I said Gene, you are just shameless, to which 
he responded wryly, he said no, Geoff, I am just looking out for your 
best interest for the future.
  And even today we have Gene Snyder interns working in our office, 
carrying on the legacy that that man began when he was elected to the 
Fourth Congressional District of Kentucky in 1966. It is my hope that 
this program will continue for many years to come and will help foster 
that spirit of civic service that would make Gene Snyder proud.
  In October, 2006, I was part of a historic event that took place in 
Oldham County, Kentucky during the latter part of my campaign. It was a 
meeting between Senator Jim Bunning, Gene Snyder and myself, and it was 
a humble privilege to be part of the final gathering of three Members 
of Congress who served the Fourth District of Kentucky. Gene Snyder and 
Senator Bunning have been constant encouragers to me and have helped 
make the Fourth District what it is today.
  I am forever in debt to their hard work and service to the 
commonwealth and to our Nation. To me, the newest person to inherit a 
piece of this great legacy that Gene gave us, I can share that the 
highest compliment that I could pay to him is to say that he was real. 
I became a better campaigner and certainly a better and more effective 
Member of Congress listening to Gene's advice. In fact, just today we 
passed our first piece of bipartisan legislation in this new Congress, 
and I have put the legacy back to the advice that he gave me before I 
got elected, of building those friendships and those relationships to 
benefit the people of this country. And I say thank you to Gene Snyder 
for that legislation that passed today.
  At one event when we were together I was trying to talk to him at 
length because it was just so exciting to see him. In his last years, 
he was not in good health and was in constant pain and I cherished the 
few moments that we had. But he leaned on me and he grabbed my arm and 
leaned over and whispered in my ear he said Geoff, you have got my 
vote. Now go get theirs, and pushed me towards a crowd of new people 
that I hadn't talked to yet. Always the campaigner, always the 
consummate politician, always caring for the stewardship of the office.
  As we look at these times and the legacy that was given, I think 
there is no better person to share a perspective on Gene Snyder than 
the dean of our delegation. Hal Rogers was elected to Congress in 1980. 
He knew Gene Snyder during his time coming up in Kentucky politics. He 
knew him as a colleague here in the House, and many Members have 
learned from him. And I would like to yield as much time as the 
gentleman from Kentucky's Fifth District would consume to just share 
his perspective.
  Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I thank the gentleman for yielding this time, 
and I want to say to him how much I appreciate him taking this Special 
Order out as the successor to Gene Snyder in that district to allow us 
to pay tribute to this legendary figure.
  I came here in January of 1981, and Congressman Snyder had been here, 
of course, long before I got here, had been here at that time I guess 
14 or so years. But he took me under his arm and taught me many of the 
same lessons that the gentleman has just referred to. A kind, gentle 
soul. But when he had a project on his mind you better get out of the 
way because he was tough, and he knew what he was doing. And he carried 
in his pocket a list of those who voted against his bill so that if you 
wanted a favor from Gene Snyder you had better be on his list that he 
always carried with him. He would always refer to that list when he was 
thinking about helping his colleagues. And that made him very, very 
effective.
  He was a dear friend and a mentor of all of us. He was particularly 
helpful to me as a freshman Member of this body. And I was very, very 
sad to see him leave the body in 1986. But he deserved a retirement. 
But we never could get him to come back to Washington to see his 
friends. When he finished his work here, he was finished with his work 
here and he retired to his home in Florida.
  At his funeral last Saturday in Louisville, a beautiful ceremony, 
Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, from 
Louisville,

[[Page H1951]]

an intern in Gene Snyder's office, that is where he got his start, paid 
Gene Snyder one of the most beautiful tributes that I think I have ever 
heard. The eulogy that Senator McConnell gave to Gene Snyder is 
memorable.
  In fact, Mr. Speaker, I am going to quote that eulogy because it says 
what I would like to say myself, except it has been said so well by the 
Senator. So if you will bear with me, I am going to quote the eulogy 
that Senator McConnell gave at the funeral Saturday.
  ``Twenty years have passed since Gene Snyder said goodbye to 
Washington. We gave him back to Pat, and she took good care of him 
until the end. We honor you, Pat, for your devotion to Gene on the 
wonderful journey that was marked by much suffering in these last 
years, and we share your grief.
  ``Kentucky politics has been known to produce some fine storytellers. 
Marion Gene Snyder was one of the best. You wouldn't want to share all 
of these stories with the League of Women Voters, or the Plague of 
Women Voters as he called it. But when Gene died last week, one of the 
greatest Kentucky stories of all time came to a close.
  ``Born in West Louisville to Marion and Lois Snyder, Gene came of age 
in a time and a place where you worked hard, went to church on Sunday, 
and always voted democratic. His dad worked a number of jobs to support 
the family. Gene summed up his childhood like this: I was a poor boy, 
he said from the other side of the tracks in a cold water flat.

  ``But what he lacked in privilege he made up for in smarts. Politics 
called at an early age and Gene responded in the only way he knew how. 
He gave it everything he had. He enrolled at the University of 
Louisville, went to law school. He volunteered as precinct captain 
before he was old enough to vote and he won his first political 
appointment as Jeffersontown City Attorney in 1954 at the age of 26.
  Continuing to read now from Senator McConnell's eulogy at the 
funeral, he says, ``party officials saw his talents right away, and 8 
years later, they tapped him as a candidate for Congress.
  ``Youth wasn't the only obstacle he faced. Let's not forget that back 
then, ``conservative'' was a bad word. When Gene was preparing his run, 
a famous Harvard economist summed up the national mood. These are the 
years of the liberal, he said. Almost everyone now so describes 
himself,
  ``Not Gene. He was conservative before being conservative was cool. 
And he made no apologies for it. Most people would have excused him for 
moderating his views until he got his feet under him. But he wasn't the 
type to bend in the direction of the crowd. He stood still and watched 
as the rest of the country bent toward him.
  Now, continuing from the eulogy that Senator McConnell paid tribute 
to Gene on Saturday at the funeral, ``he was 35 when he arrived in 
Washington with the rest of the class of '63. He had a lot to say and a 
way of saying it. He saw a lot that year. A President assassinated, a 
new administration and the stirrings of an anti-American counter 
culture that he would battle, always with good humor, for much of the 
rest of his life.
  ``It was a difficult time, but it was exhilarating too. Young 
conservatives were quietly developing the ideas that would one day 
drive the political culture in Washington, and men like Gene Snyder, 
who dared to speak those ideas in a hostile crowd, gave all of them 
reason to hope.
  ``Those were the thoughts that were going through my mind at least, 
Senator McConnell says, when I applied to be an intern in Gene's office 
after my junior year at U of L. Like most interns, I spent most of that 
summer in the mailroom. But I was working for a man who knew what he 
believed. That appealed to me.
  ``It appealed to me even more when I saw him lose his seat the 
following year. Most Republicans were running away from their party's 
presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater. Gene stood still. He embraced 
Goldwater, even when it was clear that Lyndon Johnson was about to 
destroy him in the general election. He brushed off the loss with 
customary good humor. He took out an ad in The Washington Post that 
read, ``caught in the LBJ landslide. Congressman must sell three 
bedroom, one and a half bath home on large lot near schools and 
churches.''
  ``When a curious reporter called the number on the ad, Gene picked up 
on the other end. Johnson carried my district by 64,000 votes, he said. 
I lost by 16,000. That means I was 48,000 ahead of Goldwater.
  ``I wouldn't have done anything differently in that campaign, he 
said. I don't think you should rise above principle just to win an 
election.
  ``So he came back home, started over and won again 2 years later as a 
proud conservative. And for the next 20 years the people around 
Louisville and Northern Kentucky knew they were home when they heard 
Gene's campaign jingle come over the radio. I think most folks felt the 
same way about that jingle as the customer who walks on to the screen 
in that Head-On commercial and says, the commercial is annoying, but 
the product is great.
  ``The gentleman from Kentucky made the most of his time in 
Washington. He threw himself into his work with the enthusiasm of a 
child. It was a different time. Slower, more congenial, more fun. Gene 
Snyder was the perfect man for those times.
  Now, continuing from the eulogy that Senator McConnell gave at the 
funeral Saturday, ``the people around here learned the art of politics 
by watching him lean over fences and shake hands with tobacco farmers 
in Carrollton.

                              {time}  2130

  They learned to enjoy it, too, the way he did, riding up Dixie 
Highway in a Lincoln car on warm summer nights, stapling his campaign 
fliers to telephone poles until the sun went down.
  ``A master of the practical joke, Gene once told a staffer to find a 
reception room in the Capitol that hadn't been cleaned up from the 
night before and to bring back the flowers. A little while later, one 
of the female staffers on the Public Works Committee found the flowers 
on her desk with a love note. Gene wrote the note, but he signed it 
with the name of an unsuspecting male staffer.
  ``His humor even found its way into legislation. The Kennedy Center 
was supposed to be a self-sustaining institution. But when it couldn't 
pay its bills, it would ask the Public Works Committee to help out. 
Gene was the top Republican on that committee, and he didn't like the 
idea at all. So he introduced a bill proposing Friday night wrestling 
at the Kennedy Center as a way of boosting ticket sales.
  ``A visitor to the House of Representatives in the late 1970s might 
have noticed a large man in a brightly colored sports coat. Gene liked 
to dress himself when Pat was out of town. Well, C-SPAN put an end to 
that. One day three worried viewers from Kentucky called Gene's office 
to say their Congressman was on fire. The camera made his cranberry and 
orange jacket look like he was engulfed in flames.
  ``Gene always enjoyed a relaxing atmosphere. After a late night at 
the Capitol, Members always knew where they could relax or have a 
drink. The third floor of the Rayburn House Office Building was a good 
bet. You might find Gene there playing gin rummy with friends or 
telling a story. You would just follow the laughter.
  ``By 1979 most of the Nation had moved firmly in Gene's direction. 
Goldwater finally won his election in the person of Ronald Reagan, and 
Republican officials in Louisville were excited. I remember because 
there were about two of us back then, me and Gene. We announced our 
support for Reagan together, and Kentucky voters would give our 40th 
President their endorsement a year later.''
  Now, continuing from the eulogy that Senator McConnell gave at the 
funeral Saturday:
  ``Gene's good humor was matched by his skills as a lawmaker, though 
he didn't like to admit it. 'I'm a lawyer,' he'd say, 'but not enough 
to hurt.'
  ``Yet anyone who worked with him knew he was one of the great 
parliamentarians of his day, someone who brought a staggering knowledge 
of the rules to the Public Works Committee and a lot of good things 
back to Kentucky.
  ``He was instrumental in building the Jefferson County Floodwall, the 
Markland Dam Bridge, the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge in Covington, and the 
Banklick Creek Watershed Flood Control

[[Page H1952]]

Project. He was responsible for the Dayton Floodwall; the Falls of the 
Ohio Wildlife Conservation Area; the renovation of the Louisville Post 
Office and the Louisville Courthouse; and a new terminal at Standiford 
Field; new bridges in Covington and Newport; the Gene Snyder Airport at 
Falmouth; and, of course, the freeway. That is what Gene called it 
anyway. Just the freeway.
  ``Gene embodied the old rule that Members of Congress should be 
friends after 5 o'clock. He was a committed conservative, but even 
liberal Members lined up to thank him in his last days in Washington. 
One of them had this to say: 'Gene Snyder has been devoted to building 
things like bridges across rivers and streams, but he has also devoted 
himself to devoting goodwill among people.'
  ``When the last staffer turned off the lights and pulled the door 
shut on Gene's Capitol Hill office, an era in Washington ended. The 
people in the Fourth District saw a lot more of him and Pat. The 
members of Owl Creek Country Club would hear his stories now. The 
people at Concordia Lutheran saw him quite a bit.
  ``But Washington would miss, and still misses, his common touch, his 
lack of pretense, his principle.
  ``Age and illness would take their toll in the last years of Gene's 
remarkable life, but his humor remained. Old friends would call just to 
hear the recordings on his answering machine.
  ``But now death has done its work, and a great American story comes 
to an end. Yet we know it continues. This husband, father, lawmaker, 
mentor, and friend goes to the Father's house now.
  ``We take comfort in trusting him to the Lord of Mercy, who tells us 
that in the life to come, every question will be answered. Every tear 
wiped away. And we look forward to the day when we see Marion Gene 
Snyder again, upright, restored in body, healthy and strong, reaching 
across the fence to take our hands.''
  So, Mr. Speaker, that is the eulogy that Senator Mitch McConnell of 
Kentucky, the senior Senator from Kentucky, the Republican leader in 
the Senate, as he delivered the eulogy to our friend Gene Snyder 
Saturday at the funeral in Louisville. I read the eulogy because I 
could not say it any better.
  Gene Snyder was a legend in his own time. He is a legendary Member of 
this body. He was one of the most powerful Members of this body for 
many years. But beneath that sometimes publicly crusted personality was 
that warm, gentle spirit and warm, gentle heart; that helpful person 
who reached out a hand to help those who needed it, whether it be a 
Member of Congress or a person back home looking for help on a Social 
Security claim or a veteran's pension or the like.
  We won't see his kind again, unfortunately, but I am glad that I had 
the honor and privilege of knowing Gene Snyder for many, many years, 
listening to his advice, laughing at his stories, and enjoying the 
companionship that we did. God rest his soul.
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
  Congressman Rogers, I think you captured the emotion and the power of 
that funeral, the eulogies, the reminiscences that brought so many to 
laughter. Sitting with Gene and Pat Snyder was always a wonderful 
journey back to the old House in the days before C-SPAN, before 24-hour 
news cycles, before multimillion dollar campaigns.

  The one thing that struck me about him when I first met him was his 
complete lack of pretense. As a young man, I couldn't believe this was 
a Congressman, compared to the image that one would have on TV, 
somebody so approachable, so transparent, and his great gift of humor. 
He could teach with humor. He could scold with humor and make his point 
very clearly. He was a man who built friendships that transcended 
partisan differences.
  As Congressman Rogers mentioned from Senator McConnell's eulogy, one 
of his great friends in the House was Congressman Carl Perkins, who 
represented what is now the western part of the Fourth District, 
centered in Ashland, Kentucky, in Boyd County. He and Carl Perkins 
could fight on the floor, fight in the hallways on issues, but at 5 
o'clock they were friends, and they were strong friends committed to 
the Commonwealth, committed to the future of Kentucky.
  He was a strong leader. And probably the highest compliment that I 
could pay him is that he was real. And that fact is never lost on those 
who knew him. Those who were his foes in legislation had tremendous 
respect for him and invariably they liked him.
  The real fruit in a person's life comes from the seeds that are sowed 
in many lives, the fruit that is born from that. I think of several 
names to mention here that come to mind. Congressman Rogers shared his 
perspective on Gene's influence in his life. I have shared mine on his 
influence on me. My wife, Pat, and I used to live in La Grange, 
Kentucky, down near the Louisville suburbs. My first campaign chairman 
in Olden County was Harold Smith. Harold Smith, as a young attorney in 
1966, managed Gene's first campaign for Congress in the Fourth 
District, and then he helped manage my first campaign for Congress in 
2002 and then again in 2004 and again in 2006. I think about that 
legacy of friendship and how he reached out and was known by so many in 
the community.
  Another was his staff director on the Public Works Committee, Mike 
Toohey, who also was with us on Saturday. Mike left government at the 
time that Gene retired and had a long and distinguished career in 
government relations, helping Ashland Oil, later Ashland Inc., to reach 
out and communicate its needs and the needs of our citizens in Kentucky 
legislatively and was a great friend to the Commonwealth and was also 
one of those products of Gene's influence and his mentorship.
  Another was Joe Whittle, who met Gene the first time in 1975 when he 
was running for attorney general in Kentucky at a time that it wasn't 
cool for Republicans to be running on a statewide ticket. Gene called 
him up on the phone. Joe was a little taken aback to get a phone call 
from the famed Congressman Gene Snyder, but he invited him to come up 
to meet him in Louisville and then drive up to Northern Kentucky to 
give a talk at the Beverly Hills Supper Club to a large group of 
Republicans there. When Gene got up to introduce Joe Whittle, he used 
his humor to make that strong point about how he had sized up Joe's 
character, and he said, This is Joe Whittle. He is a lawyer but not 
enough to hurt. And they instantly became friends and were close and 
intimate friends until a week ago when Gene left this Earth. Later Joe 
Whittle became the United States Attorney for Western Kentucky.
  The investment that Gene made in so many lives has transcended their 
immediate impact and gone to other generations.
  Anne Gernstein, who is now the chairman of the Olden County 
Republican Party, was his office manager at his office in Louisville. 
And before I first met Gene, I met Anne. She was helping with the local 
campaign, and I walked in the door as a new volunteer, just wanting to 
get involved in politics, and I would have never thought at that time 
that I would have the great honor and privilege to follow in the legacy 
of that great man.
  Gene, we will miss your humor and that twinkle in your eye right 
before you are about to spring a joke on someone.
  To Pat and the children, thank you for sharing this great man with 
us. Your hospitality and kindness are remembered by so many that you 
have touched throughout the years.
  Gene Snyder left an indelible imprint on Kentucky and our country. 
With his passing, Kentucky has lost, and the Nation has lost, a great 
leader and a true statesman; but his legacy continues to live on.

                          ____________________