[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 142 (Wednesday, November 19, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6111-S6112]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          A GREAT ASSOCIATION

  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, first let me thank my friend and colleague 
for his lifetime characteristic which is being very gracious and very 
generous in his remarks.
  Chuck Grassley and I have served together since 1974. I like to tell 
people that in 1974, that was a big wave of Democrats who came in. They 
called us the Watergate babies. We came in a big wave, won a lot of 
elections. In fact in Iowa that year they elected a Democratic U.S. 
Senator and every House seat--I think there were six at that time--six 
House seats all went Democratic except one, and that was the seat that 
Chuck Grassley won that year, bucking the trend--the tide--in 1974.
  So it is kind of a funny thing, Chuck,--I speak to my friend across 
the aisle here--that a lot of times people, this year, have said, ``All 
you Watergate babies are gone now, you and Max Baucus, and Chris Dodd 
and on the House side George Miller and Henry Waxman. So this is the 
last of the Watergate babies.''
  I said, ``No, there is one left.''
  ``Well, who is that,'' they say.
  I say, ``It is a Republican.''
  ``A Republican? Who is that?''
  I say, ``My colleague from Iowa, Chuck Grassley, is sort of, shall I 
say, the last man standing from that class of 1974.''
  Again, it is a tribute to Senator Grassley that through all these 
years he has won the hearts and minds of the people of Iowa, been 
elected and reelected. Of course he came to the Senate before I did. He 
came in 1981 and I came in 1984. So I like to think we at least share 
in common bucking the trend a little bit--the tide--because in 1984 
someone said, ``Harkin ought to run for the Senate in 1984 because 
there will be a big Democratic landslide,'' and so I ran. The tide was 
just the opposite. There was a Reagan landslide here. But I was 
fortunate enough to win the election. So I think the two of us share 
the bucking of the tide, so to speak, getting into office when we ran. 
But it has been a great association all these years.
  As I stand here today on my 75th birthday, I guess when you are this 
age, I think I have two kinds of emotions. One, I wonder where the heck 
did all the years go and how did they go by so fast. And sometimes I 
say, gosh, sometimes I wish I could turn the clock back and do it all 
again. The other emotion is sort of my Irish side of me. The Irish have 
a saying that any time you are on this side of the grass is a good day. 
So I am sure happy that I made it this far.
  I again want to say that since the time we took our oath of office on 
January 4, 1975, we have served together both in the House and in the 
Senate. A lot of the time we were on the same committee, the 
agriculture committee, working on a lot of different agriculture bills. 
I remember back in the 1980s working on the credit bill at that time 
when so many farmers were underwater. As the Senator said, it has been 
a great honor and a privilege to represent the people of Iowa.
  As he mentioned, we belong to different parties, we have different 
philosophies of approach in government, but I like to think we share a 
commonsense Iowa way of looking at the world. We are not monolithic out 
in Iowa. We are not all one philosophy or all the other philosophy. 
Sometimes I find very conservative friends of mine and I may have a 
liberal view of one thing and I find liberals and I may have a more 
conservative view of something else. So the people of Iowa, as my 
friend has said, think a lot about these things, and they take these 
things into consideration.
  My friend has said, well, a lot of people say how can Iowans elect 
someone who is conservative and someone who is liberal. I think that is 
because there are common strains of that wave itself to the people of 
Iowa in so many ways where there is a cross of conflicts of maybe a 
conservative approach and a liberal approach.
  I say to my friend, I value his friendship and his counsel through 
all these years, even though, again, as my friend said, we approach 
things maybe from a different philosophical standpoint. That is fine. 
That is okay. But we have never let a disagreement on philosophy ever 
be the last word between us or the final word or anything like that. It 
is always, well, that is that. What is next? And the one thing I really 
appreciate that my friend said is that when it comes to Iowa, you don't 
find any daylight when it comes to a disaster on what we can do for 
Iowa and Iowans. We have had a wonderful relationship through all these 
years and it is one that I have cherished very much.
  I heard my friend, in making some notes, say that sometimes they say 
he is a cold-hearted conservative and I am a bleeding-heart liberal. I 
am going to set the record straight. He is not a cold-hearted 
conservative, he is a caring conservative. He cares deeply about 
people. He cares deeply about the people of Iowa, too. And I hope I am 
not a bleeding-heart liberal. I hope I am a liberal who believes in 
individual responsibility--individual responsibility.
  My friend has been a very caring conservative through all these 
years. I think together we have achieved important things for our 
State: economic development, rural development, agriculture, energy, 
all these things we worked together on for Iowa. I am proud of the fact 
that in Iowa right now with regard to energy production, 25 percent of 
our energy comes from wind energy in Iowa. We produce the blades and 
turbines and everything in Iowa and all the jobs there. That is 
something we have worked together on through all these years.
  Again, people have asked me why I am leaving the Senate. Well, it was 
my decision. At the time--almost 2 years ago--I said, you will never 
hear me ever say bad things about the Senate or denounce the Senate or 
say terrible things. I love the Senate. This is a wonderful 
institution. Yes, we hit a few bumps in the road once in a while, but 
that is to be expected in a legislative process that represents 300 
million people in this country. But working together you form 
friendships and alliances.
  I have often said that as a progressive, I want to go this far this 
fast and the conservatives want to go this far this slow, but by 
working together, you

[[Page S6112]]

can make progress. You can make progress, and that is what I think both 
Senator Grassley and I have worked on together. We try to make 
progress, especially for the people of Iowa.
  I thank the Senator for his kind words. I know we are not supposed to 
say this on the Senate floor; we are always supposed to speak in the 
third person. But I never wanted to follow all of the rules anyway. So 
I wish to speak directly and say: Thank you very much, Chuck Grassley, 
for your friendship, your counsel, and for working together through all 
these years. I will miss that relationship--working on the Senate 
floor.
  I will be in Iowa. I will be working with the Harkin Institute at 
Drake University. I will be spending a lot of time on the disability 
policies and advancing the cause of people with disabilities in some 
way, shape or form. I don't know how but in some way. It is a 
nonpartisan institute, and we have a great board of directors. The 
former chair of the Iowa Republican Party is on the board of the Harkin 
Institute, and I want to keep it nonpartisan.
  I ask that my friend come and speak--and perhaps lead a discussion at 
some time--at the institute at Drake University. I would be honored if 
my friend would do that sometime down the road. I don't know when, but 
sometime when we can work it out. I know my friend will be well 
received, and I think the young people at Drake need to hear the 
conservative side of the story as well as the liberal side of the 
story. They need to have that kind of input. I hope we can work it out.
  I say again that I know in the future my friend and his wonderful 
wife Barbara, a great and wonderful person, and Ruth and I will 
maintain friendships and our connections as we move into the future. If 
there is any way we can work together for the benefit of Iowans, just 
let me know, and I will be glad to be the Senator's lieutenant in the 
field out there in Iowa sometime.
  Again, I thank my friend so much for so many years of counsel and 
friendship and working together. Thank you, Chuck.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. I thank my colleague for his kind remarks and for being 
here and for serving the people of Iowa.
  Mr. President, I wish to take 4 more minutes to speak on another 
subject.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coons). Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.

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