[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 9 (Thursday, January 15, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S403-S411]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FAREWELL TO THE SENATE
Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, let me begin by thanking the leaders for
their kind comments. It is true that I have been here a long time, I
say to my friend from Kentucky. As a matter of fact, I say to my friend
from Hawaii, I remember the first time I stood on the floor as a
Senator of the United States. It was the desk directly to your left,
Senator, the top row, second in. It was temporarily my desk. I remember
standing and being told that the desk on my right was the desk of Henry
Clay and on my left Daniel Webster because the senior Senators from the
respective States got those desks. I say to my friend from California,
it was the only time I can remember being speechless when I stood
there, as a 30-year-old kid, thinking: Oh, my God.
Well, I never thought I would be standing here today. I never
believed serving in this Chamber was my destiny, but it always was a
big part of my dreams.
I remember vividly the first time I walked in this Chamber, I walked
through those doors, but I walked through those doors as a 21-year-old
tourist. I had been down visiting some of my friends at Georgetown
University. I went to the University of Delaware. I had a blind date
with a young lady from a school they used to call Visi Visitation--
which is now part of Georgetown. My good friend, a guy named Dave
Walsh, was there. After the evening, staying at his apartment, I got up
and--I shouldn't say this probably, but I will--I don't drink. Not for
moral reasons, I just never had a drink. There is nothing worse than
being a sober guy with a bunch of college guys who have a hangover the
next morning.
So I got up and decided to get in the car--this is a true story,
Senator Carper--and I drove up to the Capitol. I had always been
fascinated with it. In those days, you could literally drive right up
to the front steps. I was 21 years old. This was 1963. I say to my
friend from Iowa, I drove up to the steps and there had been a rare
Saturday session. It had just ended. So I walked up the steps, found
myself in front of what we call the elevators, and I walked to the
right to the Reception Room. There was no one there. The glass doors,
those French doors that lead behind the Chamber, were open. There were
no signs then. I just walked
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in. Literally, I walked in, and I walked in down here, and I came
through those doors. I walked into the Chamber and the lights were
still on and I was awestruck, literally awestruck. I don't know what in
God's name made me do it, but I walked up, I say to my friend from
Arkansas, and I sat in the Presiding Officer's chair. I was mesmerized.
The next thing I know, I feel this hand on my shoulder and the
Capitol Policeman picks me up and says: What are you doing? After a few
moments he realized I was just a dumbstruck kid. He didn't arrest me or
anything. That was the first time I walked onto the Senate floor. It is
literally a true story.
By the way, just 9, 10 years later, I walked through those same doors
as a Senator. A Capitol Hill policeman stopped me walking in and he
said: Do you remember me? I said: No, sir. He said: I welcome you back
to the Senate. He was retiring. He used to be a Capitol Hill policeman.
He was retiring 2 weeks later. He said: Welcome to the floor, legally.
Well, it is sort of fitting to the way I started my career here. I
may not be a young man anymore, but I am still awestruck. I am still
awestruck by this Chamber. I think it brings my career full cycle, to
know that while I was once detained for sitting in the Presiding
Officer's chair, I will now occasionally be detained in the Presiding
Officer's chair as Vice President of the United States of America.
The Senate has been my life, and that is not hyperbole; it literally
has been my life. I have been a Senator considerably longer than I was
alive before I was a Senator. I may be resigning from the Senate today,
but I will always be a Senate man. Except for the title ``father,''
there is no title, including Vice President, that I am more proud to
wear than that of a Senator of the United States.
When I arrived here, giants--giants--loomed over the landscape of the
Senate, people with names such as Danny Inouye, Hubert Humphrey, Ed
Muskie, William Fulbright, Jacob Javits, Mike Mansfield, Stuart
Symington, Scoop Jackson, Sam Ervin, John McClellan, Warren Magnuson,
Claiborne Pell, and a few others who are still here: Bob Byrd, and the
lion of the Senate, Ted Kennedy. In those days, chairmen dominated.
Literally, as Senator Inouye will remember, if a chairman said he
wanted a vote, almost without exception, every other chairman voted
with that chairman on a vote on the floor of the Senate in 1973. But
the old ways of doing business and the old ways of thinking were, at
that very moment in the Senate's history, beginning to change.
As my colleagues know, there is a longstanding tradition in the
Senate--I think honored in the breach now more than the rule--but when
I got here in 1973, it was mandatory that a new Senator would pay
respects to the ``old bulls of the Senate.'' I never dreamed I would be
an old bull of the Senate.
I remember the first appointment I made. It was to go see Senator
John Stennis, chairman then of the Armed Services Committee. I now have
Senator Stennis's office. I remember I walked in--and Senator Stennis
had a great and large mahogany conference table that was a gift from
the President of the Philippines to Vice President Barkley for the
liberation of the Philippines. He used it as his desk. He had a blotter
at one end of it. It seated--I don't know how many people it seats--15
people. It was a desk with a group of leather chairs around it.
I walked in--and those who remember John Stennis, he talked at you
like this when he talked; he always put his hand up like this--he
looked at me and he said: Young man, sit down, sit down. And he patted
the leather chair next to him, so I dutifully sat down. He said:
Congratulations. He said: May I ask you a question? I said: Yes, sir,
Mr. Chairman. He said, What made you run for the Senate? Being tactful,
as I always am, I answered honestly without thinking. I said: Civil
rights, sir. As soon as I did, I could feel the beads of perspiration
pop out on my head, and I thought: Oh, my God. He looked at me and he
said--absolutely true story--he said: Good, good, good. That was the
end of the conversation. Well, that was 1973.
In 1988, time had transpired; he had become my good friend. We shared
a hospital room, a hospital suite at Walter Reed for a number of
months. He had lost his leg to cancer. It was during that period when
President Bush was coming into office. As the tradition is, as all my
colleagues know, you get to choose your offices based on seniority as
they come up, as offices come open. I have always thought--we all think
our offices are the finest--I always thought of his office, which had
been the office of a man whom he never referred to by his first name
that I can remember, and the man after whom the Russell Building is
named, Chairman Russell. It had been his office.
I walked down to look at his office. It was that period in December
when no one was around. The elections were over. I walked in, and I
think his secretary of 30 some years--I think her name was Mildred. My
memory is not certain on that, but I think her name was Mildred. I
walked into the anteroom to his office, and all these boxes were piled
up. He was packing up 40-some years of service.
She said: Senator, welcome. Welcome. You all are going to take our
office?
I said--I think her name was Mildred: I don't know, Mildred, I am
going to check. I said: Is the chairman in?
She said: No, you go right in the office.
I went in the office. Without her knowing it, Senator Stennis had
come in through the other door of the hallway and was sitting there in
his wheelchair in the same exact spot, with one leg, staring out the
window of that office that looks out onto the Supreme Court.
I said: Oh, Mr. Chairman, I apologize. I apologize for interrupting.
He said: No, Joe, come in, sit down, sit down.
I sat down in that chair, and what astounded me, I say to Senator
Boxer, is he looked at me and said: Joe, do you remember the first time
you came to see me? I hadn't. I told this story about Senator Stennis
to my friend from Mississippi before, as he walks on the floor.
He asked me: Do you remember?
I said: No, I don't.
He said: I asked you why you ran for the Senate.
I said: Oh, I remember. I was a smart, young fellow, wasn't I.
He looked at me and said: You all are going to take my office, aren't
you, Joe? He caressed that table, the table he loved so much. He
caressed it like it was an animate object.
He said: You are going to take my office?
I said: Yes, sir, I am.
He said: I wanted to tell you then in 1973, and I am going to tell
you all, this table here was the flagship of the Confederacy.
If you read ``Masters of the Senate'' about Johnson's term, you will
see in the middle of the book a picture of the table in my office with
the famous old southern segregationist Senators sitting around that
table chaired by Senator Russell.
He said: This was the flagship of the Confederacy. Every Tuesday, we
gathered here under Senator Russell's direction to plan the demise of
the civil rights movement from 1954 to 1968. It is time this table
passes from a man who was against civil rights into the hands of a man
who is for civil rights.
I found it genuinely, without exaggeration, moving. We talked a few
more minutes. I got up and when I got to the door, he turned to me in
the wheelchair and said: One more thing, Joe. The civil rights movement
did more--more--to free the White man than the Black man.
I looked at him and said: Mr. Chairman, how is that? Probably Thad
will only remember as well as I do.
He went like this: It freed my soul; it freed my soul.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, I can tell you that by his own
account, John Stennis was personally enlarged by his service in the
Senate. That is the power of this institution. Men and women who come
to Washington, who come in contact with folks in different parts of the
country that we represent, with slightly different cultural
backgrounds, different religions, different attitudes about what makes
this country great, all races, all religions, and it opens a door for
change. I think it opens a door for personal growth, and in that comes
the political progress this Nation has made.
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I learned that lesson as a very young Senator. I got here in 1973,
and one of the people, along with Danny and others on this floor who
kept me here, was Mike Mansfield, the majority leader. He used to once
a week have us report to his office, which is where the leader's office
is on the other side. He really was doing it, in retrospect, to take my
pulse, to see how I was doing.
I walked in one day through those doors on the Republican side, and a
man who became my friend, Jesse Helms, and his wife Dot--who is still
my close friend and I keep in contact with her--I walked through those
doors, and Jesse Helms, who came in 1972 with me, was standing in the
back excoriating Bob Dole for the Americans with Disabilities Act.
I walked through the floor on my way to my meeting with Senator
Mansfield. I walked in and sat down on the other side of his desk. Some
of you remember he smoked a pipe a lot of times when he was in his
office. He had the pipe in his mouth and looked at me and said: Joe,
looks like something is bothering you.
I said: Mr. Leader, I can't believe what I just heard on the floor of
the Senate. I can't believe that anyone could be so heartless and care
so little about people with disabilities. I tell you, it makes me
angry, Mr. Leader.
He said: Joe, what would you say if I told you that 4 years ago,
maybe 5, Dot Helms and Jesse Helms were reading, I think the Charlotte
Observer, the local newspaper, and they saw a piece in the paper about
a young man in braces who was handicapped at an orphanage. He was in
his early teens. All the caption said was the young man wanted nothing
more for Christmas than to be part of a family.
He said: What would you say if I told you Dot Helms and Jesse Helms
adopted that young man as their own child?
I said: I would feel like a fool, an absolute fool.
He said: Well, they did.
He said: Joe, every man and woman sent here is sent here because
their State recognizes something decent about them. It is easy to find
the part you don't like. I think your job, Joe, is to find out that
part that caused him to be sent here.
He said: Joe, never question another man's motive. Question his
judgment but never his motive.
I think I can say without fear of contradiction, I have never
questioned any one of your motives. I learned that lesson very early at
the hands of iron Mike Mansfield who had more character in his little
finger than the vast majority of people we know have in their whole
bodies.
That advice has guided me, and hopefully well, and I hope it guides
this Congress because those who are willing to look for the good in the
other guy, the other woman, I think become better people and become
better and more able legislators.
This approach allowed me to develop friendships I would never have
expected would have occurred. I knew I would be friends with Danny
Inouye who came to campaign for me. I knew I could be friends with Ted
Kennedy. And I knew I could be friends with Fulbright and Humphrey and
Javits, men with whom I shared a common view and a common philosophy.
But I never thought--I never thought--I would develop deep personal
relationships with men whose positions played an extremely large part
in my desire to come to the Senate in the first place to change what
they believed in--Eastland, Stennis, Thurmond. All these men became my
friends.
As Senator Hatch will remember, I used to go over after every
executive session of the Senate Judiciary Committee and go into Jim
Eastland's office, which was catercorner, and sit down and he allowed
me to ask him a lot of dumb questions as a young kid would want to ask:
Who is the most powerful man you ever met, Senator? What is the most
significant thing that has ever occurred since you have been here?
On that score, he looked at me and said: Air conditioning.
I said: I beg your pardon?
He said: The most significant thing that happened since I got here
was air conditioning.
I thought: Wow, that is kind of strange.
He said: You know, Joe, before we had air conditioning, all that
recessed lighting all used to be great big pieces of glass like in
showers. He said: Come around May, that Sun--he used to use a little
bit of profanity which I will not use for appropriate reasons--that
darn Sun would beat down on that dome, hit that glass, act like a
magnifying glass and heat up the Chamber, and we would all go home in
May and June for the year. Then we put in air conditioning, stayed year
round and ruined America.
(Laughter.)
Senator Stennis was my genuine friend. But one of the most unlikely
friendships was Strom Thurmond. Some of you knew my relationship with
Strom. Did I ever think when I got here I would become friends with
Strom Thurmond? He stood for everything--I got started because of civil
rights. Yet on his 100th birthday, certainly thereafter, on his death
bed I got a phone call from his wife Nancy. She said: I am standing
here at the nurse's station, Joe, with the doctor. I just left Strom.
He asked me to call you. He wants a favor.
I said: Of course, Nancy, whatever he wants.
She said: He would like you to do his eulogy.
Well, I never thought in my wildest dreams that this place, these
walls, the honor that resides, would put me in a position where a man
whose career was one of the most interesting in modern American history
asked me to do his eulogy. I never worked so hard on a eulogy in my
whole life. I think I was completely truthful--truthful to the best of
my knowledge.
As I said, he was a man who reflected the ages. He lived in three
different ages, three different parts of American history. I remind
people, which some will not remember, by the time he resigned, he had
the highest percentage of African Americans working in his office as
any Senator. He voted for the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act.
He had, in my view, I believe, changed.
This is an incredible place, I say to my colleagues, an incredible
place. It has left me with the conviction that personal relationship is
the one thing that unlocks the true potential of this place. Every good
thing I have seen happen here, every bold step taken in the 36-plus
years I have been here, came not from the application of pressure by
interest groups but through the maturation of personal relationships.
Pressure groups can and are strong and important advocates, but they
are not often vehicles for compromise. A personal relationship is what
allows you to go after someone hammer and tongs on one issue and still
find common ground on the next. It is the grease that lubricates this
incredible system we have. It is what allows you to see the world from
another person's perspective and allows them to take the time to see it
from yours.
I am sure this has not been my experience alone. In a sense, I am
probably preaching to the choir of the very men and women sitting in
this Chamber who have experienced similar things.
One of the most moving things I ever saw in my life was on the floor
of the Senate. The year was 1977. We were about to adjourn for the
year. There was a vote cast, and as we all do, we assembled in the well
to vote.
One of my personal heroes, Hubert Humphrey, was literally riddled
with cancer. He died very shortly thereafter. He showed up, like Dewey
Bartlett of Oklahoma, he showed up every single day knowing he
literally had days to live. He walked down this aisle--because I was
standing back here. I have been on this back row for years, with my
good friend Fritz Hollings for 34 years.
He walked down the aisle, and as he did, Barry Goldwater came through
the doors and was coming down the aisle to vote. Barry Goldwater and
Hubert Humphrey shared virtually nothing in common philosophically.
They had a pretty tough campaign in 1964. It got pretty rough. Barry
Goldwater saw Hubert and walked up and gave him a big bear hug. He
kissed him and Hubert Humphrey kissed him back. And they stood there in
a tight embrace for minutes, both crying. It brought the entire Senate
to tears. But to me--to me--it was the mark of a storied history of
this place. Hubert loved it here. He once said:
The Senate is a place filled with good will and good
intentions, and if the road to hell is paved with them, then
this is a pretty good detour.
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Friendship and death are great equalizers. Death will seek all of us
at some point, but we must choose to seek friendship. I believe our
ability to work together with people with whom we have real and deep
and abiding disagreements, especially in these consequential times, is
going to determine whether we succeed in restoring America. I think it
is literally that fundamental and basic.
Things have changed a great deal since I first arrived here. There
were no women in the Senate. Margaret Chase Smith had just retired and
it would be 6 years until the next woman was elected in her own right,
and that was Nancy Kassebaum. Today, there are 16 women in the Senate,
and we need many more, but that is progress.
Our proceedings in those days were not televised. They didn't have
fax machines, let alone e-mail. I remember the fights we used to have
in conference about whether we would actually spend money for
computers. Remember those fights? Some of the older guys thought:
Computers? Why are we going to waste the taxpayers' money and put
computers in our offices? I am almost embarrassed to acknowledge that.
That makes me a ``pretty old dude,'' as the kids would say.
I often hear Senators lament today that the 24-hour news cycle and
the need to go back home every weekend--or in my case every night--
makes it harder than it used to be to get to know one another, to share
a meal. Not long after I first was elected, there was an accident in my
family, and I didn't want to stay. Senators Humphrey and Kennedy and
Mansfield and Hollings, among others, said: Just stay 6 months. It was
not unusual in those days for there to be groups of Senators who, with
their spouses, would take turns once a month having dinner for the rest
of the Senators. Senator Eagleton of Missouri, who recently passed away
and was a good friend; Senator Gaylord Nelson and his wife, who was
incredible and who has also recently passed away; Senator Hollings; and
my friend--and he is my friend--Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska had one
of those groups, along with a guy named Saxby from Ohio, who became
Attorney General. While I never, ever stayed in Washington,
particularly in those days, they insisted I come, and I would go to
those dinners. I was a kid, I was single, but they included me. The
truth of the matter is, they went a long way toward saving my life,
changing my life.
You know, for the first time in 36 years, I am going to have a home
in Washington--public housing--and I hope Jill and I can use it to help
bring us all together. I hope it can be used to foster deepening
relationships. We all are so busy in our own careers it is awfully hard
to do it anymore.
I have seen Senators who have come to this institution to attack it--
because that is how they got here, they attacked it. They called it
useless and venal. Attitudes such as that, which have been observed in
the past, can sometimes become self-fulfilling prophesies. But if you
come here with a dedication to hard work, an open mind, some good
faith, and to make progress, that, too, can become a self-fulfilling
prophecy.
In 1837, Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his Phi Beta Kappa address to
Harvard, said:
Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their
duty to accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which
Bacon have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon
were only young men in libraries when they wrote those books.
I am told today by the Senate Historian that there have been over
1,900 Senators who have served. I have served with more than 320 of
them, and I have learned something from every one of them. As a matter
of fact, I was also given a piece of discouraging information as well;
that only 19 Senators in the history of the United States of America
have ever served as long as I have, one of whom is in this Chamber. As
I said, I have learned a lot from them, and I can tell you from
experience that most of them are only seen as giants in the hindsight
of history. At the time, they were legislators trying to do their best.
I look in my desk and I see the names carved in the drawer. Maybe the
public doesn't know how much like kids we are. We get here, and we come
over here after the Senate is closed and we sit there, somewhat
embarrassed, and we actually carve our names in the drawers of the
desk, in the bottom. It is a tradition. Maybe there is someone who
didn't do it, but I don't know of anyone, even the most sophisticated
among us. I look in the desk drawer I have and I see names of famous
Delawareans, such as the longest serving family in the history of the
State of Delaware--the Bayards. Six have been Senators. But I also see
the names of Scoop Jackson and John F. Kennedy and others in my drawer.
Look in your desk and you will see names you recognize as well, and you
all know them. Forty years from now, when someone opens your desk and
looks at your name, will they think of you the way I think of these
men? To me, that is a test we each are going to have to meet.
With the gravity of the challenges we face today comes--as every
similar moment in our history--the most significant opportunity for
change, the most significant opportunity for progress. I firmly believe
this, too, can be an era of legends, of giants. But this much I know:
Our Nation desperately needs it to be.
During my first term in the Senate, when I spoke out in favor of
campaign finance reform at a Democratic caucus--and Senator Inouye may
remember this; he was then Secretary of the Senate--the President pro
tempore, Jim Eastland, listened intently in what is now called the
Mansfield Room. When I got finished with my impassioned speech about
the need for public financing, he stood--and he hardly ever spoke at
the caucus, as Senator Inouye will remember--and he always wore a glen
plaid suit and always had a cigar in his mouth about as big as a rubber
hose--and he leaned up at the table in the front--and he never stood
completely straight--and he sought recognition and he leaned up, put
himself halfway up, took the cigar out of his mouth, and he said:
Joe, they tell me ya'll are the youngest man to ever get
elected to this August body--
I wasn't. There was one younger than me popularly elected, but I
didn't dare correct him. He said:
Let me tell you something, Joe: Ya'll make many more
speeches like you did here today, you're going to be the
youngest one-term Senator in the history of the United States
of America.
I walked out of that conference, as I have said to Leader Reid, and
walked in here--and we didn't used to have those booths by the phone--
and Warren Magnuson, who also smoked a cigar, pulled out his cigar and
said: Biden, come here. Can you imagine calling to a Senator and
saying: Come here. He said: Stop this stuff. I didn't work this darned
hard--a little different language used--I didn't work this darned hard
the past 30 years to have some sniveling little competitor get the same
amount of money as me. Stop it. Stop it.
I walked away as politely and as quickly as I could. I never
dreamed--I never dreamed--that nearly four decades later I would be
elected to a seventh term to the Senate of the United States. Never,
ever dreamed it. Thirty-six years ago, the people of Delaware gave me,
as they have given you in your States, a rare and sacred opportunity to
serve them. As I said, after the accident, I was prepared in 1973 to
walk away from that opportunity. But men such as Ted Kennedy and Mike
Mansfield and Hubert Humphrey and Fritz Hollings and Dan Inouye
convinced me to stay--to stay 6 months, Joe. Remember that? Just stay 6
months. And one of the true giants of the Senate, who thank God is
still with us, Robert C. Byrd, without any fanfare, in late December,
in a cold, driving rain, drove to Wilmington, DE, stood outside a
memorial service at a Catholic Church for my deceased wife and
daughter, soaking wet in that cold rain, and never once came to see me,
just to show his respect, and then got back in the automobile and drove
back to Washington, DC.
This is a remarkable place, gentlemen and ladies. And as I healed,
this place became my second family, more than I suspect it is for most.
I needed it, and for that I will be forever grateful--forever grateful.
So to the people of Delaware, who have given me the honor of serving
them, there is no way I can ever express to them how much this meant to
me. To my staff, past and present, and all those on the floor,
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past and present, dedicated to making this institution run, including
the young pages, wide-eyed and hopefully going home and wanting to come
back someday in our spots, thank you for everything you have done for
me. I suspect you have done for me more than you have done for most.
To my children, Hunter and Ashley and Beau, if I was nothing else, I
would be content to be the father of such wonderful people. To my
grandchildren, who constantly remind me why the decisions we make in
this August body are so important, and to my Jill, you once saved my
life, and you are my life today, I thank all of you. I thank all my
colleagues for making my Senate service possible and this next chapter
in my career in life so hopeful.
I came here to fight for civil rights. In my office now sits that
grand conference table that once was used to fight against civil
rights, and I leave here today to begin my service to our Nation's
first African-American President. The arc of the universe is long, but
it does indeed bend toward justice, and the Senate of the United States
has been an incredible instrument in assuring that justice.
So although you have not seen the last of me, I say for the last
time, and with confidence in all of you, optimism in our future, and a
heart with more gratitude than I can express, I yield the floor.
(Applause, Senators rising.)
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Delaware is
recognized.
Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I was elected State treasurer at the age
of 29, 4 years after Joe Biden was elected to the Senate. For the last
30 years or so, I have had the honor and in some cases the misfortune
of following him as a speaker, throughout the State of Delaware and in
some cases around the country. It is a tough act to follow and I
wouldn't pretend to be able to do that.
Over the last 200 years that we have had a Senator, we have seen any
number of great orators come here and speak in this Chamber, in some
cases to mesmerize us, in other cases to inspire us and to change our
minds. Joe has done all of those things again today and he does it
perhaps as well as anybody.
People speak here today, as in the years in the past, and they quote
Churchill; we quote John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King. I am surprised
he didn't quote one of his favorite Irish poets, Seamus Heaney, I
think. He quotes him a lot. But the person I think I have heard Joe
quote the most in his life has been none of those folks, none of those
Irish poets, but it has been his mom and his dad. I wish I could ask
for a show of hands, how many times have you had Joe Biden say to you:
I give you my word as a Biden. If we could count them all up today in
this room and if we could get a dollar a week--maybe we couldn't pay
for the stimulus package but make a pretty good downpayment. Many times
I have heard him say--he quotes his dad--I will paraphrase it: It is a
lucky man who gets up in the morning, puts his feet on the ground, and
knows the work he is about to do has consequence, substance, is
meaningful.
A guy doesn't turn out like this by chance--to become the youngest,
not only one of the two youngest Senators elected in the history of our
country, he is also the youngest seven-term Senator in the history of
our country.
His mom is still living. She lives in a property close to Joe and
Jill's home. His dad is deceased. But I know we owe them a huge debt of
gratitude because the values they instilled in him, the need to serve
other people, and the Golden Rule. This is a man of deep faith. You
wouldn't always know it, he doesn't talk a lot about it, but this is a
person whose life and values were shaped as much by his family and his
faith as anybody I know. I know his parents taught him to treat other
people the way he would like to be treated. That led to his great
involvement and support of the Civil Rights Act and underlies
everything he does today.
All of us have families. All of us love our families. I do not think
I know anybody in public life or outside of public life who is more
committed to and who loves his family any more than Joe: Jill, his
first wife Neilia, whom I never had the pleasure of knowing--I tell you
he has a wonderful wife Jill. It is clear he loves her with all his
heart. The three kids are not kids anymore; they are in their thirties
and twenties. Beau is over in Iraq today serving in the National Guard.
But there is an extraordinary bond between a father and a child.
It has been said the greatest gift that a father can give to his
children is to love their mother. He doesn't just love their mother, he
loves the kids, he loves the grandchildren. This is a loving guy with a
family that is as strong as any I have ever seen. You heard the old
saying I would rather see a sermon than hear a sermon. When it comes to
family values, you see the sermon. You don't just hear it, you see it.
We see the sermon.
In politics, I like to say our friends come and go but our enemies
accumulate. When you think about the people Joe has talked about here
today, from Eastland to Jesse Helms to Senator Thurmond--he didn't
mention Phil Gramm--you would never imagine a guy who has his
convictions, his philosophy, his commitment to civil rights and other
causes--you would never imagine he would become their friend,
confidant--and not so much for them to change him, but for him to
change them and in fact this country.
Joe, you have been part of the glue that holds this place together.
As we have said goodbye to a lot of good men in the last several weeks,
it is a real sort of sense, not of bitterness, not of sweetness, but
maybe bittersweet that we say goodbye to you today. The 8 years I have
been here, I know there have been a lot of times when we sought to try
to make sure the Vice President didn't come and cast a tie-breaking
vote. My guess is in the time you serve for Vice President--4 years or
8 years, however long it is going to be; I hope it is 8--my guess is
there will be times we orchestrate the votes so you will have to be
here. I don't know if we can do it in a way that will allow you to come
to the floor and give another speech like you have just given. Maybe we
can figure it out.
But as a friend, as we say goodbye and move on to this next
assignment in life: God bless our President-elect. He has made a
terrific choice not just from Delaware, which is hugely happy and
excited, but I think for our country and I think for the world. But I
want to say, for the last 8 years, thank you for being my friend, my
confidant. Thank you for being my adviser. Thank you for asking for my
advice from time to time and listening to my advice. To your staff that
is gathered here today, and your family up in the balcony, thank you
for sharing with us a wonderful human being, for nurturing and bringing
him along. The staff has provided such terrific support, almost like an
extension of my own staff. We love your family and we love your staff
and we are going to miss you. Thank you for always having my back, and
for looking out for me and for making possible the extraordinary
experience as a junior Senator for the last 8 years.
I understand your resignation becomes effective, is it 5 p.m. today?
As I look at this clock here, I know for the next 5 hours, 49 minutes,
I get to be a junior Senator and then after that I move up in the
pecking order. But I will always be your junior Senator and your
colleague and I hope your friend. God bless you in all your life ahead
and thank you for all you have done for us and for me especially. God
bless you.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Delaware.
Mr. BIDEN. Thank you very much. You have been one of my closest
friends and confidants and you will continue to be, and I appreciate
your sentiment.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the
quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered. The Senator from Utah is recognized.
Mr. HATCH. I am only going to take a few minutes, but I want to say a
few things about my friend Joe Biden, certainly from this side of the
aisle.
Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to Senator Joe Biden as
his
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service in the Senate representing the great state of Delaware ends and
his service as our Nation's next Vice President is about to begin.
Like everybody else, when I think of Joe Biden, I first think of his
family. As important as the Senate has been in defining his illustrious
career, the man we know has been defined by his wife Jill and his
children. Senator Biden, were he never elected to the Senate or the
Vice-Presidency, has succeeded and accomplished much in this life when
you see the tremendous job he and Jill did in raising Beau, Hunter, and
Ashley.
Today, however, our remarks will focus on Senator Biden's legislative
and other professional accomplishments. I can tell you firsthand that
anyone would be hard pressed to find a more distinguished and effective
legislator. In an age of endless cynicism toward our elected officials,
let there be no doubt that the word ``distinguished'' is a truly
fitting description of this extraordinary public servant. He is a
friend of mine. I have been privileged to serve 32 years side by side
with Joe Biden on the Judiciary Committee and I have nothing but
respect for him.
Most of our work together was on the Senate Judiciary Committee,
where Senator Biden served as chairman from 1985 until 1995. I served
as ranking member for many of those years, and when I first served as
chairman from 1995 to 1997, I had the good fortune of having Joe Biden
as my partner on the committee, serving as ranking member. It was on
the committee that I saw Senator Biden at work and learned a great
deal.
I can think of no chairman of the Judiciary Committee who had a
better sense of what he wanted to accomplish--a vision for the
committee--than Senator Joe Biden. No one was more interested in the
details of legislating than he was. The Violence Against Women Act, The
Violent Crime Control Act of 1994, the drug czar's office and the COPS
program all would not exist today were it not for his talents and
leadership.
In one of my proudest moments as a U.S. Senator, I was joined by
Senator Biden here on the Senate floor to hail the passage of the Adam
Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which President Bush signed into
law a week later, June of 2006. Senator Biden and I had introduced the
bill only a year earlier, and we worked hard to see its passage in a
relatively short amount of time. The bill was very significant and the
law has changed the landscape with regard to sentencing, monitoring,
adjudicating, registering and tracking sexual predators.
As chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Biden mastered the
Senate's dying art of legislating because he valued legislating. Joe
Biden is not just a speech giver--though he is good at giving a long
speech--he is an exceptional legislator. Majority Leader George
Mitchell said he was the best Senate floor strategist he had ever
worked with, and coming from George Mitchell, that's saying something,
because George Mitchell was one of the best Majority Leaders we have
had in the Senate. There are few like Senator Biden left in the Senate
who have the skill and patience to carefully and thoughtfully develop
an idea for policy reform; craft what he believes to be the ideal bill;
patiently--and with the long view--establish a record through hearings,
reports, and media engagement; build institutional support by
corralling colleagues and crafting compromise; and skillfully managing
the bill's passage on the floor.
Political pundits and the media have for decades tried to get a
handle on what makes Joe Biden tick. Too often, they settled for the
easy answer--Joe's ``a wild stallion that never felt the bridle'' or he
is an ``unguided missile.'' That's nonsense. Senator Biden has proven
himself to be an accomplished statesman with enormous personal vision.
I am proud he is going to be our next Vice President of the United
States serving with, as he said, the first African-American President.
We are all proud of that and we should be, and we should do everything
in our power to help.
No one better captured the Joe Biden we know than the author Richard
Ben Cramer, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his political reporting of
the 1988 Presidential race in the classic book ``What It Takes.''
As a kid growing up in Scranton, ``there was (to be perfectly blunt,
as Joe would say) a breathtaking element of balls.'' That was Richard
Ben Cramer, not me. ``Joe Biden had balls. Lot of times more balls than
sense. . . . What he was, was tough from the neck up. He knew what he
wanted to do and he did it.'' Later in life as a lawyer, he applied
that mental toughness and, another quote, ``cocky self-possession'' to
his chosen career--politics. There, Joe Biden would envision what he
wanted to achieve and how he wanted to achieve it. While the experts,
staffers, and consultants we Senators come to rely on would buzz around
him with advice and direction, Joe Biden would listen but know in his
gut what to do. ``Joe could see the thing whole thing in his head, and
what's more, he could talk it.''
In the end, what Joe Biden chose to take on and how he succeeded all
rested on Joe's certainty. As Cramer wrote, ``Once he'd seen it . . .
he knew what was supposed to happen . . . Hell, it was a done deal . .
. and then it wasn't imagination, or even balls. Not to Joe Biden. It
was destiny.''
That is from ``What It Takes,'' Richard Ben Cramer's book from 1993.
The record of Joe Biden's life is clear. Mr. Vice President-elect,
you have had ``what it takes'' to be an accomplished Senator, and you
have ``what it takes'' to be our Nation's Vice President.
Your tenure here has been marked with hard work, and much success,
much pain, and much grief, much difficulty. Yet you remain humble and
hardworking. The skills and abilities our Lord bestowed on you have
been used mightily by you. Your integrity, truthfulness, and passion
will continue to serve you and this great country of ours.
I thank you for your service, and thank you for your friendship,
thank you for your continued sacrifice on behalf of this great Nation,
and I tell you personally that I love you. I appreciate you very much.
I care for you. I care for your family. We are going to be helpful to
you as Vice President of the United States. And we hope you will not
screw it up too badly there. We are going to be right there with you,
if we can.
Joe, we are proud of you and we ask God to bless you.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Delaware.
Mr. BIDEN. I would like, if I may, Mr. President, to thank my friend
from Utah for his kind comments. We have been buddies for a long time.
I hope that continues in my new job.
Mr. KERRY. It is hard to imagine, at least for me it is hard to
imagine, the Senate without Joe Biden--at least as a Senator on the
floor, in the thick of the fray. That is not just because he came here
as a kid, so to speak, not just because he chaired some of this
institution's most important committees, but it is because of this
particular moment that we find ourselves in, in the country.
This is the kind of moment Joe Biden loves to be in the middle of,
legislating. Obviously, we take a very special pride in knowing that
one of our own is about to become Vice President. While this makes him
President of the Senate, for once I actually wish Dick Cheney was right
and that Joe was still a part of the legislative branch. But, make no
mistake, the Senate's loss is President Obama's and the country's gain.
Joe will bring a terrific strategic thinking and legislative experience
to the challenges we face.
This is a special moment in so many ways, and it is an emotional
moment. I have known Joe since we were both kids, in terms of this
journey, since we first ran for office in 1972. We learned about each
other then, reading the press clips of each other's races, hearing
stories from mutual friends and joint campaign workers. The
conventional wisdom of that year is that Joe couldn't win his race
against an incumbent, Hale Boggs, who had been in office and winning
elections in Delaware for 6 years. I, on the other hand, was favored to
win mine. True to conventional wisdom, it turned out exactly the
opposite way.
To this day, I like to kid our longtime friend, our New Jersey
friend, John Marttila, who was deeply involved in both of our races
back then, that if he had just spent a little more
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time in Lowell, MA, and a little less time in Wilmington, things might
have turned out differently. But for Joe and me, both in politics and
in life, things have actually turned out pretty well, and I have loved
sharing this journey with him.
In a lot of ways, Joe Biden is an old-fashioned kind of guy. He lives
life and politics by what a lot of people think are the old rules,
regrettably: Unfailingly loyal, your word is your bond, you tell the
truth, you act on principle not ideology, and you keep faith with
family and home, you never forget where your roots are or who you are,
and you are consistent and honest in all your endeavors.
Joe Biden is all of that and a lot more in many personal ways. He is
a patriarch to the core, in the best time-honored understanding of the
meaning of that word. He never smiles more broadly or picks up more
personal energy than when he is talking about his family. Frankly, to
know Joe Biden is also to know a lot of Bidens.
Dozens of our colleagues, hundreds over the years, know that if you
call Joe Biden with a late-night question, the odds are pretty high you
are going to find him on that train, riding Amtrak home to be there
with Jill, Beau, Hunter, Ashley, and the grandchildren. There is
something pretty great about a Senator who makes sure to stop by his
mom's house for ice cream or a kiss good night on his way home. That is
exactly what Joe Biden would do with his 92-year-old spitfire mother,
Jean Finnegan Biden. It is the lessons of that big, Irish, warm,
protective family that Joe brought to the Senate. He is the big brother
whose sister Val remembers him as her protector on the playground, the
dad whom Beau and Hunter remember urging them to get up when they got
knocked down on the soccer field, the boss who calls a staff member
when they have a sick parent or who threatens to fire you if you miss
your kid's birthday because you are working late for him.
This is someone in the Senate who had a reputation for not just
talking about family values but living them. As Joe Biden said so
movingly this morning: He saw the Senate as an extended family and here
he applied the lessons his dad taught him in Scranton, that everything
comes down to dignity and respect. He has always respected the
institution, and he always respected the dignity and individuality of
every single one of his colleagues.
One of the great stories that Joe told today, which has always spoken
to me personally, is one that tells a lot about ushering in a new era
of bipartisanship. When Joe first arrived in the Senate, he complained
to the majority leader, Mike Mansfield, about a speech that another new
Senator named Jesse Helms had made. Mansfield told him: Joe, understand
one thing. Everyone is sent here for a reason; because there is
something in them that their folks like. Don't question their motive.
Every one of us who has worked with Joe Biden knows how much he took
this lesson to heart and how much we gain by applying it today. His
example is clear. If you treat people decently, look for the best in
them, you can sit down and work through divisive issues; not just score
more political points but actually get something done.
Joe likes to talk about his first impression of Jesse Helms, but he
is often too modest to talk about what happened later. Some people
might have been surprised that Joe Biden, Jesse Helms, and I teamed up
in the fight against global HIV/AIDS. Some never would have believed
that together we could bring about what is today the largest public
health expenditure or effort by any single country in world history.
That is what happens when Joe Biden takes to heart the message of a
wise warhorse such as Mike Mansfield, looks past the stereotypes, past
the party labels, and throws out all the ideological language to find
the common ground.
Nowhere did I see that more than on the issue of crime. Coming from
the vantage point of being a prosecutor in the 1970s, who then became a
Senator in the 1980s, I can tell you there was no more divisive, ugly
wedge and emotionally charged issue than crime until Joe Biden and the
1994 crime bill. Joe put an end to the ``Willie Hortonizing'' of this
issue. We worked closely together and put more cops on the streets of
America. I remember Joe's passion and tenacity on that bill.
It was a huge, landmark piece of legislation, complicated, divisive--
but not so because of Joe's enormous skill that shepherded it through
the ideological minefields that otherwise might have been impossible.
Joe was simply not going to accept defeat. He made dozens of trips to
the White House, had dozens of meetings with congressional leadership,
all to find a way to create common ground and ultimately pass a bill
that resulted in the lowest crime rates in a generation. Every step of
the way he sought out friends, he crossed the aisle, he worked the
process and built allies and invited them to share not just in the work
but also to share in the credit, which is, in the end, the best way to
get things done here. That is leadership in the Senate and that is
exactly how we make progress.
He also brought great skill to his stewardship in the Foreign
Relations Committee. I served on that committee for the full 25 years I
have been here, all of it with Joe Biden and some of it with Joe Biden
as our chair. Let me give an example.
When Russian tanks rolled into Georgia, respecting Georgia's
sovereignty became a sound bite for a lot of people, but for Joe Biden
it was a moment to pick up a phone, call up an old friend, someone he
had met as a young Parliamentarian, who was then in his twenties. So
Joe Biden got on a plane, took that flight all night, and sat on a
hilltop in Georgia with his old friend, Mikheil Saakashvili, and
together they talked to not just about the security of Georgia but the
security of a man who was then in very real danger, a man Joe Biden
believed was willing to die for democracy.
This is just one small example of the emotional intelligence and
personal touch that had been the calling cards of Joe's career in
public life for decades.
As we all know, Joe is blessed with a big, all-encompassing Irish
sense of humor, an ability to have fun amidst all the rest of the
tensions and stress and chaos. We still joke about the trip we took
with Chuck Hagel to a forward operating base in Kunar Province in
Afghanistan in the middle of winter and our helicopter wound up getting
caught in a blizzard. We had just received a briefing that, where the
modern road system ends, the Taliban begins. Lo and behold, the next
thing we knew, we had a forced landing high on a mountaintop on a dirt
road with nothing around us. We sat around swapping stories for a while
and came up with a few contingency plans in case the Taliban attacked.
First, we thought--use the hot air of three talkative Senators and the
helicopter will rise. Then we figured failing that we will talk the
Taliban to death. Ultimately, we figured we would let Joe Biden lead a
snowball charge and that would be the end of the deal. But our superb
military protectors, efficient as always, soon had us out of there,
safe and rescued, and we have had a good time laughing about it ever
since.
Later, when I told him my plan to have him lead the brigade, Joe,
reliving his Blue Hen college football glory days, flexed his right arm
and said in that inimitable Biden way: The Taliban? They are not worth
my rocket arm.
As chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Joe applied a no-
holds-barred, unvarnished truth-telling to many politically sensitive
issues. In the middle of his own Presidential campaign, he didn't
hesitate to ask whether our counterterrorism policy had turned a deadly
serious but manageable threat, a small number of radical groups that
hate America, into a 10-foot-tall existential monster that dictates
nearly every move we make. It was not a poll-tested or popular
question, but it was a sign of leadership and a mark of vision that
will serve America well when he takes the oath as Vice President of the
United States.
Let me share one last story involving my senior Senator, Ted Kennedy,
who has been an incredible mentor, both to me and to Joe, since we both
got into this business.
Years ago, when Ted Kennedy joined the Armed Services Committee,
Senate rules dictated that Ted had to step down from the Judiciary
Committee. That would have made Joe the chairman. So Joe had all the
interest in the world for that to happen. But, instead--and I suppose I
should say what
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Senator in their early forties, presented with the choice, wouldn't
have loved to have had the responsibility of the Judiciary Committee.
But Joe Biden went to the caucus and he gave them an ultimatum. He said
point blank: This is ridiculous. I wouldn't serve as a chairman unless
I have Teddy Kennedy on my side on this committee.
Make no mistake, Ted Kennedy moved to Armed Services, but he stayed
on the Judiciary Committee. Together, they fought some of the greatest
confirmation battles in the history of the Supreme Court. No one can
imagine the Judiciary Committee without Ted Kennedy's decades of focus
and fire. But the Senate should know it would not have been possible if
it had not been for Joe Biden's youthful challenge to the leadership to
get him to be able to stay there.
Joe is one of the people in the Senate whom I have had the privilege
of enjoying now for a quarter of a century and one of the people,
obviously, I have enjoyed serving with the most. We have been through a
lot. We have shared a lot, good and bad, ups and downs. What is
exciting is, frankly, we still have a lot more to come. While Joe is
making that short ride up to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, I
know there is one thing that is not going to change. We are always
going to be able to count on him to be the same Joe Biden, and I know
we can take that to the bank. When Joe works with us in these next
months--and he will work with us intensely--and when he says to you: I
give you my word as a Biden that this is going to happen, we can take
that to the bank and know it will happen.
We are very proud of our colleague, Senator Biden. We wish him well
and Godspeed. We look forward to seeing him as the presiding official
of this body, but, more importantly, we look forward to working with
him on the enormous challenges this country faces.
Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, I rise to honor my good friend and our
distinguished colleague, Joe Biden, who will be ending his remarkable
Senate career to assume the office of the Vice President of the United
States. It has been my great privilege to serve with Joe Biden in the
Senate for 32 years. He and I have served together on the Foreign
Relations Committee for all of the 30 years that I have been a member
of that panel. He entered the Senate as the sixth youngest person ever
elected to this body, having been elected at age 29 and seated soon
after he reached the constitutionally required 30 years of age. He
leaves as the longest serving Senator in the history of his State and
the 14th longest serving Senator in U.S. history. He has cast more
Senate votes than all but nine other Senators in history.
Joe Biden comes from a modest Irish-Catholic background. He started
out in Scranton, PA, where his father was a used car salesman and his
mother was a homemaker. The oldest of four children, Joe and his family
moved to Claymont, DE, where his father had found a better job. It may
be hard for many to believe today, but as a teenager, Joe had trouble
speaking because he had a stutter. But showing the grit and
determination we all have come to know, he undertook to give a speech
to his entire school as a way to force himself to overcome his
impediment. At the University of Delaware, he majored in history and
political science, and he received a law degree from Syracuse
University.
He started practicing law and worked as a public defender, but
perhaps because his grandfather had been a State senator in
Pennsylvania, he was soon attracted to politics. At the young age of
27, he was elected to the County Council of New Castle County in
Delaware. Two years later he surprised all the political experts in his
State, as well as his opponent, by defeating an incumbent Senator in a
presumably ``safe'' seat. The margin of victory was just over 3,000
votes, but Joe went on to increase his vote totals in subsequent
reelection races
Although Joe was elected at an especially young age, it would be
wrong to say that he led a charmed life. In fact, just the opposite is
the case. Just weeks after his election, his wife Neilia and his
youngest child Naomi were killed in a car crash while Christmas
shopping. His two other children, Beau and Hunter, were critically
injured. Naturally, the tragedy was devastating to Joe, and he
considered dropping the Senate seat to tend to his stricken family. The
distinguished majority leader at the time, Mike Mansfield, persuaded
Joe to reconsider, and he took the oath of office at his sons' hospital
bedside.
It was the start of a long career of dedicated service in the Senate.
It also was the start of a tradition for which Joe has become famous--
his regular commute on Amtrak from Wilmington down to Washington when
the Senate was in session.
When I arrived in the Senate 4 years later, Joe had already
established a reputation as a dynamic presence on Capitol Hill. In
1979, I joined him on the Foreign Relations Committee, where he had
become a member in 1975. We have served together ever since, and I have
benefitted greatly from Joe's friendship during that time. I have
always believed that foreign policy is most effective when it is done
in a bipartisan manner, and in Joe I found an able partner willing to
work across the aisle to achieve important victories on behalf of the
country and the American people. Some of the battles have not been
easy. I recall, for instance, the difficult job we had in achieving
passage of the Chemical Weapons Convention during President Clinton's
administration. We celebrated another major victory last year with the
passage of the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global
Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act. Recently,
our collaboration led to the joint sponsoring and introduction of the
Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act. We have worked closely on
legislation related to Iraq, Afghanistan, climate change, tropical
forest conservation, international violence against women, the control
of global pathogens, and numerous arms control measures.
Each of us has twice been chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee, and we and our staffs have worked with special purpose
during those times. We share the belief that the Foreign Relations
Committee occupies a special place in history and is an essential
component of a successful U.S. foreign policy. It is because of Joe's
wide experience, keen mind, steady hand and strong advocacy that he was
chosen by our Committee colleague, Senator Obama, to be his vice
presidential running mate.
While I will deeply miss working with Joe on the committee, I look
forward to joining with him to achieve further accomplishments while he
is vice president. Besides a new commuting routine, he will face many
challenges, and I know he will gain strength from the support and
affection of his family: his lovely wife Jill, their daughter Ashley,
and his two sons, Beau and Hunter, as well as their five grandchildren.
I wish them all the best as they begin this exciting new chapter in
their lives.
Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, on this cold January morning, I am being
kept warm by four glorious words that keep running through my mind--
those four words are: ``Vice President Joe Biden.'' I love the sound of
that. It is music to my ears.
I have known Joe Biden for nearly four decades, since he was first
elected to the Senate in 1972. I have been enriched by his friendship.
I have appreciated his commitment to public service. I have watched his
work as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the
Senate Committee on the Judiciary. I have admired the enthusiasm and
dedication he has brought to his work every single day he has been a
U.S. Senator.
His years of service in this institution will be one of his greatest
assets in the years ahead. During his tenure in the Senate, Joe has
gained a priceless working understanding of the importance of our
constitutional systems of checks and balances and separation of powers.
He has stood on this floor and argued long and hard--with fire in his
belly--against executives of both political parties when he felt it was
in the best interests of this Nation. We have all watched him, time and
again, pacing this floor, speaking in that rhythmic Joe Biden way--
drawing us in with a shout and then punctuating his point in whispered
tones. I can see him now, putting the White House on notice, and
defending the advice and
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consent authority of Senators. Joe has seen how this part of the
government--the people's branch--lives. He will assume his new job
fresh from membership in the world's greatest deliberative body. Those
Senate years will, I believe, serve him, the country, and the people,
well.
Senator Biden is moving on, and while I regret losing him as a
colleague here, I am heartened by the experience and wisdom he takes to
his new duties. I believe that he will be a great Vice President. My
good friend and former colleague, President-elect Obama showed
outstanding judgment when he selected Senator Joe Biden to be his
running mate.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader is recognized.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, the regular order is that Hillary Clinton
was to be recognized at 11 o'clock. There are a lot of people who want
to say some things about Senator Biden and Hillary Clinton. We have
votes scheduled at noon. So I would ask the Chair, under the order, to
recognize the Senator from New York, Mrs. Clinton.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from New York is
recognized.
____________________