[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 9 (Thursday, January 15, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S402]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING SENATOR JOE BIDEN

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, finally, let me say about Vice President-
elect Joe Biden, Senator Joe Biden, Joe Biden: Everyone knows about his 
courage, his wonderful family, his remarkable career in the U.S. 
Senate. We know he overcame a tremendously difficult personal tragedy 
during the first few days after his election. I am not sure many could 
have had the strength he had to conquer this tragedy. Then, of course, 
he got sick many years later and fought back. It was when Tim Johnson 
was in the hospital in a coma that Joe Biden visited him and his family 
and talked to him about the fact that there will be times when, as he 
is recovering, he may be embarrassed by his inability to speak very 
well. Joe Biden is one of the great orators in the history of the 
country. No one would have ever known he had a problem very similar to 
what happened to Tim Johnson. He was such a role model to build Tim's 
confidence to be able to come back to the Senate.
  We here in the Senate know his wonderful family, and now, because of 
his exposure to America, our country has been introduced to this great 
family. We know he is now in his seventh term in the Senate, in which 
time he has served as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, 
chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and that he is a champion of 
rights for women, the environment, a strong military, and the rule of 
law.
  When I think of Joe Biden--I have known him here since I came to the 
Congress in 1982. I came to the Senate a few years later. But in all of 
this time, the picture in my mind is during the heat of the 
Presidential campaign. I am driving down through the capital of the 
State of Nevada, Carson City, and I look out on a corner there, and 
there is Joe Biden in Carson City, NV, campaigning. He had a number of 
people around him. I stopped the car, got out, and gave Joe a handshake 
and a big hug. It was so Joe Biden to be there. He was there pressing 
the flesh and talking to voters.
  The people of Nevada have come to know and love Joe Biden for that 
very reason. He is kind of a regular guy; whether it is at one of the 
sandwich shops which came from Delaware to Nevada, Capriotti's--now 
they are all over Nevada--they all have a picture of Joe Biden in them 
because it was a Delaware-based sandwich shop. He is just a regular 
kind of guy who shows up on a street corner just to talk to people.
  I will always remember with gratitude the kindness he showed when I 
first arrived in the Senate in 1986. I will be forever grateful that he 
was one of the very first colleagues to support my candidacy for 
Democratic whip. I can remember. I was in his office. He called in his 
secretary, and I do not remember her name, but he said: I take no more 
calls on this. Reid's my man.
  Well, I have always been his. I am a Senate guy, just like Joe Biden. 
We cannot get that out of our blood. I wish him well. He is going to be 
a great representative of our country, and I am very proud to be able 
to say to Joe Biden: You are my friend.

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