[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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