[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 93 (Monday, June 11, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7442-S7443]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    REMEMBERING SENATOR CRAIG THOMAS

  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I honor a colleague, a friend, and a great 
Senator, Senator Craig Thomas.
  No words that I can speak will ease the sadness of this loss. Nothing 
my colleagues and I say can fill the emptiness that his passing has 
left or lessen the pain that so many feel.
  I feel compelled to speak of Senator Thomas not for the effect of my 
words. Instead, I speak to recognize the effect of his words, his 
actions, and his service.
  His were words, actions, and service that have improved the lives and 
futures of Americans. His words and actions will leave a legacy long 
after our sadness passes.
  Senator Thomas represented Wyoming effectively and with dignity. I 
was proud to work with him.
  We both loved the open beautiful spaces of our home States, and we 
worked to keep them clean, safe, and sustainable. We collaborated to 
improve the Endangered Species Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.
  We also worked to safeguard our constituents' livelihoods--
establishing the wool trust fund, keeping open global beef markets, and 
making sure that our trading partners played by the rules.
  We worked together to safeguard our natural resources, improve rural 
energy infrastructure, and plan for a sustainable energy future with 
clean coal technologies.
  These and many other accomplishments will be Senator Thomas's legacy. 
It is a legacy for which he deserves recognition, remembrance, and 
honor. It is a legacy for which our Nation is grateful.
  But many will remember Senator Thomas more for who he was than for 
what he did. They will remember someone with a quick wit, an easy 
smile, and a generous helping hand.
  I will remember Senator Thomas as I met him when he first joined the 
Senate in 1989. Back then, I recognized in him something very familiar. 
Senator Thomas was a man of the American West. He embodied the values 
and the character of the people whom he represented.
  You always knew where Senator Thomas stood. Like many in the West, 
Senator Thomas was quiet, unassuming, and unpretentious--but he was 
never intimidated.
  He was gentle and decent. When he gave you his word, he kept it. And 
as we all saw in these final months of his life, when he had to, he 
could fight like hell.
  That is the man I will miss and it is the man I wish to recognize 
today--an honorable Senator and a great man of the American West.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, this last Saturday, I traveled with my 
wife Nancy and many of our colleagues in the Senate to Casper, WY, for 
the funeral service of my friend Senator Craig Thomas.
  During the service I was particularly impressed by the words of 
Minority Leader McConnell and I would like to thank him for so 
eloquently eulogizing Senator Thomas. So appropriately did his words 
honor Senator Thomas that I hope all our colleges in the Senate will 
take the time to read them.
  I ask unanimous consent that this transcript of Senator McConnell's 
comments be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

             Service in Honor of Craig Thomas, June 9, 2007

       Reverend [Moore], Susan, Lexie, Patrick, Greg, Peter; 
     distinguished guests, colleagues and friends of Craig Lyle 
     Thomas.
       There are people that we can't ever imagine dying because 
     they're so alive, and there are people we can't imagine dying 
     because they seem so healthy and so strong. Craig Thomas's 
     death is doubly hard because he was both of these people. But 
     death has done its work, and so we come back to the place 
     that he was always so eager to return to, to accompany him on 
     one last trip back.
       It was here that he first heard his calling to serve in 
     public life, and here that he first

[[Page S7443]]

     tasted the bitterness of loss. But Susan always told him, 
     ``If you sign up to be a cowboy, you can't complain when you 
     draw a raw, bucking bronco.'' He couldn't have imagined in 
     those early years that one day he'd be known to America as 
     the Senior Senator from Wyoming. But he was never one to 
     dwell on his achievements. So it falls to us, his friends, to 
     speak well of this good man.
       One of the great things about this country is that so many 
     of its leaders come from such surprising places: a candle 
     shop in Boston, a cabin in Kentucky--and a one room-school 
     house in Wapiti, Wyoming. Senator Enzi tells me that The 
     Wapiti School is still standing, but that it's surrounded now 
     by 10-foot fences and a ring of barbed wire--not to keep the 
     kids in, but to keep the grizzlies out. That fence wasn't 
     there when Craig was in school. They were tougher then.
       Craig Thomas was always the tough guy--not tough to deal 
     with, not tough on others, just tough. When his family moved 
     to Cody, he signed up for two sports: wrestling and football. 
     One of his teammates on the football team, Al Simpson, was 
     also his neighbor. It may be the only time in American 
     history that two U.S. senators grew up a block and half from 
     each other.
       There was a time when it was normal for tough guys to be 
     studious too. And if you went back to Cody in the 1940s, 
     you'd find the son of Craig and Marjorie Thomas as attentive 
     to his football plays as he was to Mrs. Thompson's English 
     lessons. He'd remember and benefit from both many years later 
     during hundreds of legislative battles or on countless nights 
     by the campfire along the North Laramie River, reciting the 
     ``Cremation of Sam McGee.''
       As a young man, Craig would have heard about the days when 
     an unwritten code of honesty, bravery, and chivalry governed 
     daily life in Cody. And he was inspired by stories of another 
     code of bravery that guided young Americans of his own day in 
     exotic places like Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Tarawa, and 
     Guam. World War II cost the Marines nearly 87,000 dead and 
     wounded. But as a young man fresh out of college with his 
     whole life ahead of him, Craig Thomas wanted in. Fifty years 
     later, he still proudly wore the anchor and the globe on his 
     lapel.
       He was happiest when he was here, but 18 years ago history 
     called him to Washington and he responded dutifully. It was 
     anything but inevitable. His opponent in the campaign to 
     replace an outgoing congressman who's done pretty well 
     himself over the last 18 years had about 99 percent name 
     recognition and had just lost an election for U.S. Senate by 
     about 1,200 votes. The lowest point in the race was the 
     early polling, which suggested that Craig didn't have a 
     chance. But over the next 40 days, the Marine and his 
     staff pulled it off. Craig set the tone, he led the way, 
     and he let others take the credit. That was his way.
       Four days after the election, Craig and Susan packed their 
     bags, headed east, and two days after that Craig was sworn in 
     as a member of the U.S Congress. It wasn't the easiest 
     transition. As soon as Craig got to Washington, he froze with 
     a sudden realization--he didn't have any suits. So he did 
     what anybody from Wyoming would do. He called Al Simpson, who 
     told him where to find one.
       A few months later, he had a similar predicament. He and 
     Susan got an invite to the White House and Craig didn't have 
     a tuxedo. So he told one of his staffers to go to a dry 
     cleaning store up the street and rent one--but not to worry 
     about the shirt. When the staffer came back, she found Craig 
     in his office with a buck knife. He was cutting holes into 
     his cuffs for where the cufflinks would go. Craig just 
     laughed that big laugh of his, that full body laugh, and then 
     went to the White House with a tuxedo shirt of his own 
     making.
       The Gentleman from Wyoming took an office on the top floor 
     of the Longworth Office Building, but he didn't get too 
     comfortable. Some members of the Senate boast about visiting 
     every county in their state over the course of a year. Craig 
     visited all 23 counties in Wyoming--the ninth largest state 
     in America in just two weeks during that first August recess. 
     He enjoyed every minute of it: driving west from Casper, 
     looking out at the Wind River Range, and thinking about what 
     an honor it was to serve this big, beautiful place he loved.
       This was his home, and he loved it. He loved the land, he 
     loved the people. But anyone who knew him knew what his 
     greatest love was.
       Craig met Susan in 1978. She was working on a statewide 
     campaign, he was working for the state Republican Party, and 
     she invited him over to talk about the race. When she looked 
     out the window and saw a man riding toward her office on his 
     bicycle, she turned to the woman next to her and said, ``Now 
     who would that be?'' She soon found out, and thanks to her 
     loving support, so did the rest of the country. Everything 
     they did, they did together. She was with him for every race 
     he won. Craig always said Susan was the one who liked 
     campaigning.
       They were like children, but they were deadly serious about 
     their work. Craig viewed politics as a high calling, and he 
     viewed Susan's work the same way. He admired her deeply. He 
     never failed to mention her. I remember my wife Elaine 
     telling me after giving the commencement speech one year at 
     Susan's high school, how devoted to her the students there 
     were.
       We honor Susan today for her devotion to Craig. We'll miss 
     seeing her outside the Senate chamber waiting for him to 
     finish up his votes. The Senate's a lonelier, less joyful 
     place without Craig. It's already a lonelier, less joyful 
     place without her too.
       The people of Wyoming sent Craig to the Senate in 1994, and 
     those of us who've served with him there are grateful they 
     did. It was the first time since 1906 that every statewide 
     office in Wyoming was held by a Republican, and the credit, 
     of course, goes to Craig. He led the ticket, and he worked 
     tirelessly to bring everyone else along with him.
       But again, he didn't take the credit. And the victory and 
     the higher office did nothing to change the man. If there was 
     any chance of that, Susan made sure to nip it in the bud. She 
     made him hang a photo of himself falling off a horse. She 
     knew the Scripture that ``pride cometh before a fail'' But 
     Craig knew it too, and he wouldn't disappoint. He was a 
     simple, humble son of Wyoming and he remained one to the end.
       He was always eager to get home. So eager, in fact, that 
     one time when his Mustang broke down on the way to the 
     airport, he left it on the side of the highway and hitchhiked 
     the rest of the way. They let him on the plane to Cheyenne 
     without a ticket or anything. He called his staff from the 
     airport to see if someone could get the car. When they found 
     it, the keys were still in the ignition. They sent his 
     clothes on the next plane.
       We'll never forget his toughness, his goodness, his humor, 
     his steady reassuring hand. Nor his kindness, which he always 
     showed toward everyone--from presidents to doormen. He was 
     straightforward and honest. In a phrase that Craig might have 
     recalled from Mrs. Thompson's Shakespeare lessons, he was not 
     a man ``to double business bound.'' His only business was his 
     duty--to God, country, family, and friends. And he fulfilled 
     them beautifully.
       He was strong, humble, and full of faith. And here is why. 
     As a boy Craig Thomas looked out at the majesty of the 
     canyons and the falls of Yellowstone and knew there is a God. 
     As a teenager he saw the hard work and dedication of his 
     parents and learned that giving is more admirable than 
     taking. And as a man he could hear the rumble of the herd 
     even from his desk in Washington, and know that the movements 
     of men were nothing compared to the power of the wild.
       I am not a cowboy. But I've come to know and admire a few 
     of them in my 22 years in the Senate. And I've come to know a 
     little bit about their pastimes. I've heard that holding down 
     a steer takes two kinds of ropers--a header and a heeler, and 
     that there's an old saying that the header may be the 
     quarterback, but that the heeler makes the money. The idea is 
     that there may be more glory in roping the head, but that the 
     heeler has the harder, more important, and less glamorous 
     job. No one who knew Craig Thomas is surprised to know that 
     he preferred to be a heeler.
       The most impressive thing in Washington is also the rarest: 
     and that's a man whose position and power has no effect on 
     the person he was when he got there. I've never met a man who 
     was changed less by what the world calls riches or power than 
     Craig Lyle Thomas.
       Now this great American life has come to an end. Yet we 
     know it continues: This husband, father, lawmaker, mentor, 
     and friend goes to the Father's house. We take comfort 
     entrusting 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 are confident in the hope that he will 
     ride again, healthy and strong, along a wider, more majestic 
     plain in a land that's everlasting.

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