[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 109 (Thursday, July 19, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Page S5208]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO MICHAEL McSHANE

 Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, today I wish to honor my long-
time friend and advisor, Michael McShane, who will be retiring next 
month after 40 remarkable years working in government, the private 
sector, and in Democratic politics.
  I first got to know Michael when he and I worked together to advance 
the goals of the Democratic Leadership Council and Third Way. He was 
responsible for all the DLC activities at both Clinton inaugurals and 
the 1996 and 2000 Democratic Conventions. Later, when I decided to run 
for President in 2004, I was honored to have Michael serve as the vice 
chair of my campaign.
  Michael has built a long and impressive record of public service. As 
a young man, he served in the Air Force for 6 years, where he flew B-
52s and served in Vietnam. After leaving the military in 1972, Michael 
worked as press secretary for Congressman John J. Rooney and then as a 
Foreign Service Officer before joining the Carter-Mondale 1976 
Presidential campaign. Following that election, he served in the Carter 
White House as a Special Assistant to Vice President Mondale. Michael 
was later a White House advisor to President Clinton. He recently 
returned to public service, joining the Congressional Liaison Office at 
the United States Agency for International Development.
  Mike McShane has also had a notable career in the private sector. 
After leaving the Carter administration in 1979, he began managing 
government relations programs for trade associations and Fortune 500 
companies including System Development Corporation, National Computer 
Systems, and TRW. He also founded and led The Policy Institute, and, 
later, the McShane Group International.
  The academic and nonprofit communities have also benefitted greatly 
from Michael's talents and experience. He has served on the faculty of 
the Bryce Harlow Foundation, which seeks to promote the highest 
standards within the profession of lobbying and government relations, 
as Visiting Lecturer in American Political History at Boston 
University, and as a teacher of politics at Stanford, Notre Dame, 
Villanova, Georgetown, American, and East Carolina, his alma mater. A 
proud alum, Michael presently serves as vice chair of the Board of 
Visitors at East Carolina and the Board of the ECU Alumni Association. 
In 1998, he was named the East Carolina University Alumni of the Year.
  I can't help but view Michael McShane's departure from Washington 
through a bittersweet lens. For while I am excited that he and his 
wonderful wife Susan will get to enjoy a much deserved retirement, I 
will miss Michael's wise counsel and thoughtful insights. Still, I am 
confident that his example will live on in all of us who were lucky 
enough to know him, and I wish Michael and Susan much happiness and 
success in their retirement in Charlottesville.

                          ____________________