[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 107 (Thursday, June 22, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H5099-H5101]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HONORING THE MEMORY OF SENATOR JIM BUNNING
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kustoff of Tennessee). Under the
Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2017, the gentleman from
Kentucky (Mr. Barr) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the
majority leader.
General Leave
Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on the topic of my Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Kentucky?
There was no objection.
Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, we are here tonight to honor the memory of a
legendary Kentucky statesman, a baseball Hall of Famer, a man of this
House, and a devoted husband, father, grandfather, and great-
grandfather, Senator Jim Bunning, who recently passed away at the age
of 85.
The Members who are joining us tonight, many of them who hail from
Senator Bunning's home in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, extend our
deepest sympathy to his beloved wife, Mary, who was his best friend for
many years; his nine children; his 35 grandchildren; and his 21 great-
grandchildren.
Those who met Senator Jim Bunning walked away with an impression, and
that impression was: That has to be the most competitive person I have
ever met.
In a recent op-ed in the Lexington Herald-Leader, providing a great
tribute to Senator Jim Bunning, one of his very best friends, sports
marketing executive Jim Host, wrote that Jim Bunning was ``full of
integrity'' and, ``the straightest arrow I ever met.''
In that op-ed, he recounted a story where a reporter of the
Louisville Courier-Journal wrote that former U.S. Senator Jim Bunning
was ``one of a kind,'' and Jim Host, in remembering his friend, said,
``I agree, but more than that, he was an original. No one in politics
in Kentucky or, for that matter, nationwide has been or ever will be
like him.''
Mr. Speaker, I yield to Congressman Hal Rogers, the dean of the
Kentucky delegation.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I rise, like most of the
delegation here, in memory of our longtime friend and colleague, the
late Jim Bunning, who was an indomitable force on the pitcher's mound,
a stalwart champion for the Commonwealth, and the proud patriarch of a
remarkable family.
Jim Bunning is the type of guy you always wanted in your starting
lineup. With his multilayered talent, Jim valued strategic offense as
much as staunch defense not only on the pitcher's mound, but in the
Halls of Congress, where he fervently stood for conservative values.
Jim once said: ``I have been booed by 60,000 fans at Yankee Stadium
standing alone at the pitcher's mound, so I have never really cared if
I stood alone here in Congress as long as I stood for my beliefs and my
values.''
Jim was bold and headstrong, but also fiercely loyal, a combination
that made him effective in every endeavor he undertook. He lived a
courageous life that was highlighted by his Hall of Fame record and
commitment to public service. Jim left an indelible mark on our State,
on our Nation, and his legacy will endure for generations.
My wife, Cynthia, and I extend our heartfelt sympathy to Mary and the
entire Bunning family. We are forever grateful for Jim's courage of
conviction to faithfully serve the people of the Commonwealth.
I had the pleasure of serving with Jim in the House before he was
elected to the U.S. Senate, and many times we would be on this floor
when Jim's indomitable spirit would surface. He held strong beliefs and
he had strong opinions, but, as Jim Host has said, you have never met a
straighter arrow than Jim Bunning.
We are going to miss you, Big Right-Hander.
Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I yield to John Yarmuth, my friend from
Louisville in the Third Congressional District of Kentucky and a good
Kentuckian who will demonstrate that Jim Bunning's appeal crossed party
lines.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, my neighbor from just
down I-64, for organizing this Special Order honoring the life of
Senator Bunning this evening.
This is the first time in my 11 years serving in Congress that I have
spoken from this side of the aisle, and it is a fitting occasion that I
do that. I am proud to join my Republican colleagues and friends this
evening.
During his baseball career, Jim Bunning was once asked what his
proudest accomplishment was, and he recalled the fact that he went
nearly 11 years without ever missing a start. ``They wrote my name
down, and I went to the post,'' he said.
I can't help but think that is a fitting way of also describing his
political career and his love of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Kentuckians wrote his name down time after time again, and he went to
work for them, no questions asked.
Jim and I obviously didn't see eye to eye politically all the time,
and as amazed as I was by the curve balls that he threw on the field, I
sometimes found myself equally amazed by some of the curve balls he
threw off the field, but that was Jim. When so much of what happens in
Congress is political theater, you can't deny that he was always real
and that every word he spoke, he genuinely believed.
I am sure Jim's family takes great pride in that fact. I join with my
colleagues in offering them my thoughts and prayers as they continue to
grieve their loss. I hope they find comfort in the lifetime of memories
they share together.
It is reported that Daniel Boone once said: ``Heaven must be a
Kentucky kind of place.''
I sure hope that is true.
As I said at the time of his passing, Jim Bunning can now throw no-
hitters forever on his field of dreams.
Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I yield to Congressman Brett Guthrie, my
friend from the Second Congressional District of Kentucky.
Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to talk about my good friend, Senator
Bunning, a mentor to me. I first came across Senator Bunning when I was
a young boy watching baseball and watching him pitch for the Detroit
Tigers and for the Philadelphia Phillies. But I really got to know
them--and when I say ``them,'' it is because most of us from Kentucky
cannot talk about Jim Bunning without saying Jim and Mary. It is just
Jim and Mary. They were grammar school sweethearts. I think the only
people they ever dated were each other.
[[Page H5100]]
It was wonderful to see Mary the other day, unfortunately under these
circumstances, but a wonderful lady.
I have a couple of stories. When I first thought I might run for
public office for the State senate--and my now 23-year-old was 5, and I
had a 3-year-old son--I went to Oldham County, Kentucky, to meet Jim
Bunning. And, of course, you show up, there is Jim and Mary. And she
said: ``Are you going to be our candidate in the 32nd District?''
And I said: ``Well, I just don't know. I am really concerned about
it. I have got a young family.''
And she looked at me and she said: ``Young man, I have raised nine
kids''--I think at that point 20-something grandkids--``we have done
politics, we have done baseball, city council.'' She went through a
whole list of things. And I will never forget she said: ``You are
worried about your family because of the experiences that you have had,
and you want them to have the same kind of experiences, but you have
got to take your family and make your family experiences. Our kids have
gotten to do things no other kid has gotten to do because of the
positions and the things that we have done as a family.''
You know, when you start to run for office, you kind of want to talk
yourself out of it. So I will never forget driving back home convinced
that, yes, I am going to run for this office. I walked in, and the
first thing my wife said is: ``Guess what. We are going to have our
third child.''
I guarantee you, if I had not had that conversation with Mary
Bunning, and after my wife telling me during the time of that decision
we are going to have another one--now our 19-year-old--I wouldn't have
moved forward.
My other story is Senator Bunning took me under his wing. I won my
first race by 130 votes out of 27,000 cast. Jim Bunning was running in
a fight for his life for the U.S. Senate. Bob Dole comes to Bowling
Green, Kentucky, to have a rally for Senator Bunning, and he wanted me
to speak. Well, then we see people around town like this that are
operatives for our parties, and this one guy says: ``No. No State, no
local candidates. Only Federal candidates can speak.''
I had to leave the podium because this young, 25-year-old guy said
that. And Jim Bunning looks over--and they are all there for his
rally--he says: ``If he is not speaking, I am not speaking.''
So the next thing I know, I got on the agenda. They said: ``Yeah.
Three minutes.''
So I had my 3-minute talk.
The final thing I want to say is that one of my favorite Jim Bunning
stories is he did not like to sign baseballs made in China. That was
just his thing. He didn't want to sign a baseball made in China, which
I didn't know that, but I had two major league baseballs for my two
oldest kids to get them signed. He was going to be in Bowling Green,
Kentucky. I show up there. And on the way, my youngest daughter, which
we didn't think even cared, started crying. Well, to buy a real major
league baseball in Bowling Green, Kentucky, at the last minute is not
very easy to do. So we went by Walmart, picked up just a little
official league ball. And I walked to the restaurant and I hand Jim the
first ball. He signs it. The second one, he signs it. The third one--
and it is in my office today, because I may have the only one--he picks
it up and he points to the ``China'' imprinted on the ball and just
gives me this look like only he could give. And fortunately Mary was
there, and she says: ``Jim, you are signing that ball for that little
girl.'' So I now have it in my office in the Rayburn building, a Jim
Bunning baseball that says ``Made in China'' on it. It is something I
cherish.
His granddaughter has interned in my office, and she is a chip off
the old block, both her grandmother and grandfather. During the spring,
we were getting a lot of phone calls in our office because of some of
the actions here on the House floor. She was wonderful and mature
beyond her years at 20 or 21 years old.
So the old right-hander, as Mr. Hal Rogers said, is somebody we miss,
is somebody that is important to me, somebody that leaves a fantastic
legacy in Washington, in Major League Baseball. But far more important,
if you had the opportunity to go to the funeral home, just looking at
those nine children, and with over 30-something grandchildren and now
into the great-grandchildren, that is his legacy. His legacy is his
family, and there is no other way he would want it from that first few
days in grammar school when he first met his wife, Mary, till today. It
is just a legacy that all of us should strive to have.
We love him. We are going to miss him. And we certainly love his
wife, Mary, and his family.
{time} 1715
Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman from the First
Congressional District of Kentucky, Congressman James Comer.
Mr. COMER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of
Senator Jim Bunning. I met Senator Bunning in 1983, when I was 10 years
old. He was running for Governor. At the time, he was a State senator
in Kentucky, and my grandfather was chairman of the Republican Party of
Monroe County.
So when he ran for Governor, my grandfather was the chairman of the
county for his election. And I went up to him, a 10-year-old boy, and I
had my baseball in my hand--because that is what you did when you saw
Jim Bunning, you gave him a baseball to sign--and I said: ``Mr.
Bunning, I am like you. We have two things in common.'' I said: ``I am
a fan of sports and a fan of politics.''
And he laughed and patted me on the head, and he said: ``We are going
to get along just fine.'' And he figured out who I was, who my
grandfather was, and we stayed close through the years.
When I ran for State representative in 2000, he was one of the first
people to call and encourage me and offer his support. I won that
election. I served in the Kentucky General Assembly. He was always a
supporter. He was always there for me.
I ran for commissioner of agriculture in another statewide office,
and he was always there for me. I think the world of Jim Bunning just
because I knew him and I knew that he cared and he remembered things.
In 2004, he was running for reelection for the U.S. Senate, and it
was a tough election. It was a very close election. In fact, there were
120 counties in the State. With 118 counties in, he was behind in that
election. And there were two counties left, Metcalfe County and Monroe
County, two counties in my State House district. So he knew he was
going to win because he won those counties by 4-to-1 margins.
So every time I would see him, he would remind me that he is in the
Senate because of those counties in south central Kentucky. Most
politicians probably wouldn't remember that, but he did.
So I am honored to stand here tonight with Representative Barr and
show my support and appreciation for Jim Bunning. Kentucky is a better
State because of the leadership of U.S. Senator Jim Bunning.
Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, when you think about U.S. Senator Jim Bunning
and when you think about his remarkable baseball career before
politics, Jim Bunning could have gone anywhere and he could have done
anything, but it is important to remember that those early days during
his baseball career--and I will have to recount a story that was in
that tribute that Jim Host wrote about the Hall of Famer Jim Bunning.
And he said that, after his career had ended, it had been about 15
years, and he had not yet been named to the Baseball Hall of Fame by
the baseball writers, though when he retired, he was second in
strikeouts to the famed Walter Johnson, he had won 100 games in both
leagues, he had a perfect game in one of those leagues, and he had a
no-hitter in the other league.
He had never pitched for a pennant winner.
A prominent sportswriter told me, quoting Jim Host, that
the writers would have never elected him because he never
developed relationships with most of them.
But this wrong was corrected the first year that the old-
timers committee of the Hall could vote on him. Probably his
greatest thrill, other than the birth of his nine children,
was the call he got from Ted Williams and others saying they
were correcting a tragic wrong by voting Jim Bunning into the
Hall of Fame.
When he called Jim Host to tell him the news, his voice was
filled with emotion unlike any that he had heard from him
before.
And here is what Jim Bunning said to Jim Host:
[[Page H5101]]
I am glad those writers--he used another word--did not vote
me in, being voted in by the players means more anyway.
In his acceptance speech, he attacked the ills in the game
he loved so much that the commissioner and others were not
addressing. The officials of Major League Baseball sat on the
stage quite uncomfortable. Vintage Bunning.
But you know, after that remarkable baseball career and after that
wrong was corrected and he was ultimately voted into the Hall of Fame
by the players, he chose to come home to Kentucky where he dedicated
his life to his family and to public service.
He served on the Fort Thomas City Council and in the Kentucky State
Senate before serving in this body, in the House of Representatives, as
a Congressman from Kentucky's Fourth Congressional District, and he did
so for six terms in a very distinct fashion.
And he capped off his remarkable career in public service by serving
two terms and very consequential terms in the United States Senate.
Throughout his entire career, he remained a principled conservative,
and he was an unrelenting fighter for the causes he believed in and for
the people of the commonwealth. Just as he was unafraid to face the
boos and the jeers of tens of thousands of opposing fans in Major
League Baseball stadiums around the country, Jim Bunning was unafraid
to stand alone in Congress for the causes that he felt were right.
And a great example of this--and I like telling this story as the
current chairman of the Monetary Policy and Trade Subcommittee in this
House. Jim Bunning was a fighter for accountability and transparency of
the Federal Reserve. And when so many just took the Fed for their word,
Jim Bunning stood up and he challenged then-Fed Chairman Alan
Greenspan. And many of his colleagues looked at him in dismay because
they believed that the Fed just deserved deference, and this great
economist should always be taken as being right in what he was doing.
But Jim Bunning, in the end, was right, as Fed policies ended up
being one of the causes of the Great Recession of 2008. Senator
Bunning's legacy lives on in his amazing wife, Mary, and their many
children and grandchildren, including his grandson Eric Bunning, who
has been an important part of my team since I first took office.
And I just have to tell one story from the campaign trails. Many of
my colleagues have told these stories, but I have got to tell one that
is personal to me. Jim Bunning was a legend, and we all revered him.
And when I made my first run for Congress, it was kind of coming down
the home stretch, and we were the underdog, but I really respected
Senator Bunning, and I wanted his political experience and his advice.
And as we were going down the home stretch of the campaign--it was a
tight election--Jim Bunning approached me at an event, and he said:
``Andy, how are you doing?''
And I said: ``We are doing great. We have got the momentum. We are
moving forward, and it is really tightening up, and I really feel like
we have got the momentum, and we are going to get over the top.''
And in his way that only Jim Bunning could be, as honest as he was,
he said: ``That is not what I hear. I hear you are down by 10 points,
and you are going to lose in a landslide.''
Well, as it turned out, a few weeks later, it was a close election,
and we only lost that campaign by a few hundred votes. But you know
what? Just a few days after that concession speech that I had to give,
you know who called? It was Senator Jim Bunning.
And even though he was certainly candid in that conversation a few
weeks before election day, he said: ``Andy, you ran a great campaign.
You are a tenacious campaigner. Don't give up. Keep fighting. Be
persistent. Do it again. The next time you are going to win.''
And you know, that embodies the character of Jim Bunning: tenacious,
persistent, determined, principled, a man of integrity.
And so, Mr. Speaker, I ask that all of my colleagues join me in
praying for the extended Bunning family as we remember a respected
former member of this House and a great Kentuckian.
Mr. Speaker, it has been an honor to join many of my colleagues from
Kentucky, and all of the other fellow members of this body, to
celebrate the life and the legacy of Senator Jim Bunning.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________