[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 148 (Monday, December 8, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6360-S6361]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTES TO DEPARTING SENATORS


                               Carl Levin

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am very happy to be here today to talk 
about a couple of my friends--I should say the Senate's friends. I have 
received a lot of gifts while I have been here. My colleagues, over the 
years, have given me things here in the Senate, but one gift stands out 
really strongly in my mind. On my desk, not far from here, I have this 
big painting--it is a very famous painting from the National Portrait 
Gallery of Mark Twain.
  Mark Twain, I tell people, was born in Nevada, which is really true. 
Samuel Clemens wasn't, but Mark Twain was. Orion Clemens was chosen as 
the Territorial Secretary of Nevada, and he told his younger brother 
Samuel: Come West and I will find you a job. Samuel had been fighting, 
which he didn't like, in the Civil War, so he came West to join his 
brother. But his brother couldn't find him a job, so Samuel Clemens 
bummed around for quite a while.
  Without belaboring the story too long, the fact is, Mark Twain 
finally went up to Virginia City, which was booming at the time, and he 
went to the Territorial Enterprise newspaper and got a job as a 
reporter. This was a stunningly good and important start for his first 
writing that he had done. That is where he started his fame.
  He would have stayed in Nevada longer, but someone challenged him to 
a duel for some of the things he wrote. So being the smart man he was, 
he didn't want to duel so he left town, went to California, where he 
wrote two best-selling books, ``The Celebrated Jumping Frog of 
Calaveras County'' and ``Roughing It,'' which was about his experience 
in bumming around Nevada until he found a job. These were best sellers. 
These were great books.
  The point of the story, though, is he went to Virginia City as Samuel 
Clemens and took the name Mark Twain. That is where the name came from.
  This means a lot. It is a story I tell many times to people who come 
to my office. So Carl Levin, the wonderful, kind, thoughtful man that 
he is, said: Can I come and see you? And I said: Sure. He brought to me 
I guess it is one of the rare double signatures of Samuel Clemens. 
There may be others, I just have never heard of one. This was done at a 
club in Hannibal, MO. The club's name was Labinnah--Hannibal spelled 
backwards--and Mark Twain, in 1902, because of how famous he was, 
signed Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain, and wrote through the whole--he 
didn't want anybody else's name there. He wanted just his. So that is 
the gift he gave me.
  That was so fitting. It fits my office perfectly, and it means a lot 
to me. Carl Levin brought with him this handwritten note: ``I got this 
at an auction 10 yrs. ago not knowing why. It just dawned on me! Best 
on the New Year, Carl.''
  That was so nice of him to do that, and it is so hard to explain my 
appreciation, although I am trying to do that here by outlining what a 
wonderful human being Carl Levin is. What he did for me is an example 
of who Carl Levin is and how he thinks of people. He remembered the 
story I told him about Mark Twain, and he said, I am sure, to himself: 
I have this thing I got 10 years ago; I will give it to the Senator, my 
friend. So he gave me that plaque just because that is who he is.
  He has always been attentive to the interests of the people of 
Michigan and our country. He is the longest serving Senator in the 
history of the State of Michigan--36 years. His legislative 
accomplishments are significant. I would say they are unmatched by 
almost anyone.
  Carl Levin has stood his ground on controversial issues, and that is 
an understatement. He has fought to give average Americans a fair shot 
at what is going on in the world. He has always spoken with a clear 
voice, speaking for justice, equality, and fairness.
  (Mr. MURPHY assumed the Chair.)
  The Presiding Officer is a lawyer, I am a lawyer, but I am not sure I 
would be the best person, if you gave me a document, to look it over 
and make sure there was everything in that document you wanted in it, 
but Carl Levin is the person you want. I call him my nitpicker. He is 
so good at making sure everything is right; that every i is dotted, 
every t is crossed. Bring in Carl Levin if you have something and you 
really need someone to look at it and think it through.
  Carl was a prominent lawyer, as was his dad, in Michigan. His dad 
served as a member of the Michigan Corrections Commission. After 
graduating from high school, his father worked as an assembly line 
worker. Carl Levin also knew how to work with his hands, but he 
followed in his father's footsteps by being an extremely hard worker. 
He attended college at Swarthmore and received a bachelor of arts 
degree there. Then he attended Harvard Law School and received his 
juris doctorate from Harvard.
  He practiced in the private sector for a while. He began his public 
career as the first general counsel for the Michigan Civil Rights 
Commission. He was elected in 1968 to the Detroit City Council, and he 
served there until 1977. He was elected to the Senate in 1978. Carl has 
functioned in this body as a levelheaded mediator who is guided by the 
protection of people in Michigan and our country.
  In the past 36 years, Carl has cast over 12,000 votes. Some of those 
votes were hard, and not always popular, but they were Carl Levin 
votes. He did what he thought was right. When General Motors and 
Chrysler, in the last few years, faced a potential collapse, he 
recognized their bankruptcy would devastate the people of Michigan and 
have a detrimental--effect and that is a gross understatement--on this 
country. He pressed the incoming Obama administration to support the 
companies with loans. There was a hue and cry from people who opposed 
that, saying that is the wrong thing to do, Levin is wrong, Obama is 
wrong. But they were right. Look what it has done to energize, 
revitalize the State of Michigan, the whole Detroit metropolitan area 
and our country, with tens of thousands of new jobs as a result of his 
advocacy. As I said, it wasn't a popular position at the time, but Carl 
knew what was good for Michigan and good for our country and he has 
been vindicated a hundred times over.
  Carl has been chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on 
Investigations for 10 years. During that period of time, he has done 
some unusually important things for our country through this committee. 
Corporate money laundering--1999. He delved into that very deeply.
  Carl Levin is not a headline hunter. Carl Levin is a substantive 
legislator. He could have held a lot more hearings, but he held them 
about every 6 months because he wanted his hearings to be Carl Levin 
hearings where, I repeat, every i was dotted, every t was crossed, and 
they were very powerful hearings.
  Gasoline price manipulation, the Enron scandal--he delved into that 
very deeply.
  Misconduct in the United Nations oil-for-food program, tax haven 
banks and offshore corporate tax evasion--he has talked about that and 
talked about that. Very notable legislation as a result of the work he 
has done: Wall Street reform, the Consumer Protection Act, the Credit 
Card Act, the PATRIOT Act.
  Carl Levin is a very fine legislator. He fought for Wall Street 
reform when others were afraid to do so, and he helped restore the 
broken financial system that held powerful institutions accountable for 
their actions. Carl's persistence earned him a slot in Time magazine's 
list of America's 10 best U.S. Senators. They called him the ``Bird-
Dogger.''
  Well, that is what he is. Put him on an issue and he will come back 
with the prey. He is very good. He never stops. He is a sharp-eyed 
overseer of U.S. defense policy. He has spent his entire career 
promoting defense policy that protects America's interests at home and 
abroad while safeguarding the men and women who serve.
  Carl is the Chair of the Senate Defense Committee. During the 
Nation's most trying of diplomatic times he has done a remarkable job 
to make sure the military is protected.
  Even though he was Chair of this big powerful committee--the Defense 
Committee--he felt so strongly and he foresaw what a lot of us didn't 
see. He saw the disaster that would accompany an

[[Page S6361]]

invasion of Iraq. Accordingly, he talked about how bad it would be and 
voted against it. Carl Levin was right and a lot of us were wrong. I 
have said before on the Senate floor, of all the votes I have cast 
during the time I have been in government, the worst was voting for the 
Iraq war. But I did. Carl Levin did not.

  But for all of his accomplishments in Congress, his greatest 
achievements reside in his home. Carl and his wife of over 50 years, 
Barbara, have three beautiful daughters: Kate, Laura, and Erica. Landra 
and Barbara are good friends. They are part of a book club. They have 
had a wonderful relationship over these many years. So as Carl retires 
from the Senate, I know he is going to cherish the time he is going to 
spend with his family.
  But also Carl and I have had a long, long ongoing conversation. He 
and his brother Sander own about 100 acres. They have had it for a long 
time. Carl Levin is not a man of wealth, but he and his brother bought 
this 100 acres that has nothing on it but trees. He calls it his tree 
farm. He has shown me pictures of it. I have not seen it lately, but I 
have had for 15 or 20 years a hat he gave me--a green baseball-type 
cap--that says ``tree farm'' on it. I used to tell him I still have 
that cap. And I still have that cap, Carl.
  He will be missed here in Washington. He will be missed in the Senate 
by all of us. But he will be missed more by his older brother Sandy, 
who is the ranking member on the Ways and Means Committee in the House. 
They have served together in Congress for 32 years.
  I have said this on the floor before, and I will say it again. I will 
remember Carl Levin for a lot of things, but when I was in the House, I 
came over to visit with him. I was thinking about running for the 
Senate. I said: Carl, I came to the House with your brother Sandy. He 
looked up at me and said: Sandy is not only my brother, he is my best 
friend. That speaks well of the person who Carl Levin is.
  It has really been a privilege and an honor to serve with Carl. I 
will miss him so very, very much. I will miss having somebody to take 
the difficult issues to, to get his view as to what we should do, how 
we should handle it.
  His voice will be missed here in the Senate. I congratulate him on 
his incomparable career in the Senate, and I wish him the very best.


                            Jay Rockefeller

  Mr. President, it is said that you do not choose your family, and 
that is true. We are born into our families. We have no way to 
determine the family we are born into. Yet as a 27-year-old Jay 
Rockefeller chose to make the people of West Virginia his family. How 
did that happen? How did Jay Rockefeller, born in New York to one of 
the most famous American families, one of the great dynasties in the 
history of this country, end up in West Virginia?
  He was an undergraduate student at Harvard. He decided he did not 
like some of the things Harvard was doing, and so he left. He dropped 
out of school and went to Japan. He spent 3 years in Japan. He became 
an interpreter. He knows the Japanese language extremely well. He loves 
the Japanese people. He started out at Harvard. As I indicated, after 
his junior year, he left for Japan. He was there for 3 years. He came 
home, returned to Harvard, and finished his degree.
  Jay Rockefeller, as a 27-year-old, could have done anything, gone 
anyplace, gotten any education, started any business, or he could have 
sat around at a home on one of the beaches around the world and just 
done nothing. But that is not Jay Rockefeller. He wanted to do 
something. He did not know what he wanted to do. This Rockefeller 
wanted to do something that was different.
  A friend of his published here for many years a magazine called the 
Washington Monthly, a guy by the name of Pete Peters. He was a man-
about-town. Everybody liked him very much, but he was very close to Jay 
Rockefeller. So Jay talked to him one day trying to find what he should 
do in life. Here he was, one of the wealthiest men in America. He had a 
Harvard degree.
  ``What should I do?''
  Pete Peters told him: ``What you should do is go someplace and work 
with poor people.''
  ``Where should I go?''
  ``Why not West Virginia?''
  ``West Virginia?''
  ``West Virginia.''
  So he joined AmeriCorps. As a VISTA volunteer, he moved to the small 
mining community of Emmons, WV. That was in 1964. This man of means, 
this man of stature, this man of notoriety went to this small little 
town in West Virginia.
  It was not easy for Jay Rockefeller to suddenly find himself in a 
setting he had never imagined. In the first 6 months he was there, he 
could hardly get anyone to talk to him. He is kind of an intimidating 
man. His name is Rockefeller. He is 6-foot-7. But eventually his 
goodness came through. The people of Emmons, WV, started talking to 
him, and they really liked the man. From 1964 when he moved there, he 
knew he wanted to identify with poor people, and that is what he has 
done since 1964.
  In 1966 he was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates 
assembly.
  In 1968 he was chosen to serve as the secretary of state in the State 
of West Virginia.
  He then became the president of West Virginia Wesleyan College and 
served there for 3 years.
  He then was twice elected Governor of the State of West Virginia. He 
served from 1976 to 1984.
  Governor Rockefeller became Senator Rockefeller in 1985. From the 
time he first stepped onto the Senate floor, he made it clear he was 
here for one reason: to fight for the people of West Virginia. Senator 
Rockefeller fought to provide his constituents with health care. He was 
an architect of CHIP, a children's health program. It is an insurance 
program. The Children's Health Insurance Program is one of the most 
important health initiatives in America's history for kids. He fought 
to protect Medicaid for half a million West Virginians but for millions 
and millions of Americans.
  He has been a senior member of the Committee on Finance, the chairman 
of the Commerce Committee, and chairman of the Intelligence Committee. 
What a remarkable career he has had. He fought very hard to protect the 
American people from President Bush's efforts to privatize Social 
Security. He has protected retirement disability benefits by doing that 
for millions and millions of Americans.
  His efforts to help West Virginia have not been confined to this 
building. As the senior Senator from West Virginia, this big man--I 
repeat, 6-foot-7--with a very, very long reach, has used that reach to 
bring jobs to his home State as Governor and as Senator. Because of his 
recruiting, there are thousands and thousands of West Virginians 
employed at the Toyota factory in Buffalo; Hino Motors in Williamstown; 
and at the Kureha plant in a town called Belle. Thousands and thousands 
of jobs. Diamond Electric, Nippon Thermostat, and NGK Spark Plugs are 
all companies Senator and Governor Rockefeller helped bring to West 
Virginia.
  The people of West Virginia have been blessed to have Senator Jay 
Rockefeller as a family member for the last 50 years. They have been 
blessed to have a person of his integrity and tenacity looking out for 
them in the Senate.
  My respect for Jay Rockefeller is unlimited. He has been my colleague 
for the entire time I have been in the Congress--32 years. Now, as his 
time in the Senate comes to an end, he will be sorely missed.
  I am sure Jay is looking forward to spending more time with Sharon, 
this wonderful, wonderful woman--and by the way, whose father was a 
U.S. Senator--and their children John, Valerie, Charles, and Justin, 
and their six grandchildren.
  I so admire this good man. I congratulate him on a very distinguished 
career, including five terms in the U.S. Senate, two terms as Governor. 
I wish him the very best in life.

                          ____________________