[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 43 (Thursday, March 13, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S2033]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       SENATOR HOWARD METZENBAUM

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I had the good fortune to serve in the 
Senate with one of the real characters of this Senate, Howard 
Metzenbaum. A smile has to cross my lips when we talk about Howard 
Metzenbaum because he was someone who really was a Senator. He had read 
the bills. He wanted to make sure people were treated fairly. If they 
weren't, he knew how to slow things up. But in the end, he was willing 
to come around. I have such respect and gratitude for the service to 
our country of Howard Metzenbaum.
  He served 18 years as a Senator from Ohio, from 1976 to 1995. He was 
really a self-starter, for lack of a better description. He held his 
first job at age 10 delivering groceries, worked his way through Ohio 
State University with all kinds of jobs--sold flowers, played trombone 
in the band at the university, sold magazines, razor blades, rented 
bicycles. But he graduated Ohio State with all those odd jobs, Ohio 
State law school.
  His first big business break came when he and a partner created a 24-
hour staff parking lot at Cleveland's Hopkins Airport. No one had ever 
heard of a 24-hour parking lot. He did.
  Howard Metzenbaum came to the Senate as a very wealthy man. He was a 
self-made man. He was a man who had made a name for himself. He was a 
labor lawyer, a union lobbyist. When he came to the Senate, he never 
forgot the people those unions represented, the working men and women 
of Ohio. After he left the Senate, he became the head of the Consumer 
Federation of America, a perfect place for him.
  His partner in all this was his wife Shirley, whom we all came to 
adore. They have four daughters.
  I want the Record to be spread with my appreciation and admiration 
for this good man from Ohio.

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