[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 135 (Wednesday, September 23, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S9730]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                       REMEMBERING IRVING KRISTOL

 Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I wish to pay tribute to the 
exceptional life, character, and work of Irving Kristol. Irving was an 
inventive entrepreneur of ideas who was boundless in his wit, 
creativity, and insight. Though we have lost an intellectual giant, we 
will continue to cherish and learn from Irving Kristol's rich legacy 
for years to come.
  Irving understood that ideas have consequences--and his immense 
influence was the result of his unique ability to shape the American 
political landscape with the power of creative thought. He harnessed 
this power most impressively in his writing, editing, and publishing. 
Beginning in 1942 when he cofounded his first magazine--Enquiry: A 
Journal of Independent Radical Thought--this began a tradition of 
launching small magazines with immense influence. He became 
instrumental in opinion journals like Commentary, Encounter, the New 
Leader, the National Interest, and, of course, the Public Interest, 
which he founded with Daniel Bell. Though these publications did not 
enjoy large numbers of subscriptions, Irving Kristol valued the quality 
of his readership over the quantity and maintained that he could change 
the world with a circulation of a few hundred. And he did.
  He lived the life of the creative mind and inspired many aspiring 
thinkers and writers to join him in this pursuit. One among them, the 
noted scholar James Q. Wilson, wrote that ``Irving Kristol not only 
helped changed the country, he changed lives. He certainly changed 
mine.'' Irving inspired in many Americans a desire for honest inquiry 
and a healthy dose of skepticism that humbled and better prepared us to 
accept the immense difficulty of making useful changes in public 
policy.
  Though he was a force in intellectual circles around the world, 
Irving was also a champion for the well-being of ordinary Americans. 
His mission as a neoconservative, he once said, was to ``explain to the 
American people why they are right, and to the intellectuals why they 
are wrong.'' Irving was a genuine patriot who served bravely in the 
Second World War and eloquently and forcefully defended America's 
values and principles. It came as no surprise to me that President 
George W. Bush awarded Irving Kristol the nation's highest civilian 
honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2002.
  Hadassah and I offer our condolences and prayers to Irving's wife 
Gertrude, his children, Bill and Elizabeth, and the entire Kristol 
family.

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