[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 193 (Thursday, December 6, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7335-S7336]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Remembering George H.W. Bush

  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, as our Nation paused just for a little 
while this week to remember the 41st President of the United States and 
to honor his legacy and his life, I think it is important that we also 
pause here in the Senate Chamber, and, quite frankly, I bring that same 
sense of respect from my State of Oklahoma.
  President Bush was widely known as our President. Quite frankly, one 
of the legacies I think he will leave the longest tale on is his 
commitment to faith and family. His compassion for people ran 
throughout his lifetime.
  The conversation during the funeral yesterday in Washington, DC--and 
it is happening right now in Houston--centered significantly around his 
relationship with his beautiful wife Barbara. Seventy-three years of 
marriage is quite a legacy, and it is rare in America. It was a gift to 
America to see that kind of example set in front of us; it is that kind 
of commitment to their family and to each other.
  They met each other at a dance in Greenwich, CT, in 1941, when he was 
a 17-year-old high school senior and she was 16, and they went out to 
dance together with Glenn Miller songs playing. Tell me that is not a 
throwback to a different time and a different age.
  They were engaged in 1943 at the height of the war. During that same 
time period, he was engaged in working with the United States to 
protect our country during World War II. He served as one of the 
youngest fighter pilots--the youngest during that time period.
  Some of his letters have survived, and much has been said about what 
a prolific, personal writer President Bush was in his own life. The 
letters he wrote to Barbara during that 1943 time period have survived, 
including a letter he wrote to her on December 12, 1943, when they were 
still engaged. He said:

       My darling . . . Bar, you have made my life full of 
     everything I could ever dream of--my complete happiness 
     should be a token of my love for you.

  Who writes like that, other than a man who is a great personal 
example to the Nation?
  They were married on January 6, 1945, and had six children. They were 
the longest married Presidential couple, married 73 years. In 1994, 
Barbara Bush described herself and her husband in her memoirs as ``the 
two luckiest people in the world, and when all the dust is settled and 
all the crowds are gone, the things that matter are faith, family and 
friends. We have been inordinately blessed, and we know that.''
  In 1994, that same year--he is still writing her decades later--he 
wrote her on their anniversary with this note:

       Will you marry me? Oops, I forgot you did that 49 years ago 
     today. I was very happy on that day in 1945. I'm even happier 
     today. You've given me joy that few men know. I've climbed 
     perhaps the highest mountain in the world, but even that 
     cannot hold a candle to being Barbara's husband.

  Their love story didn't come without some challenges, though. Barbara 
was open about her struggle with depression in the 1970s. She described 
those times, saying this:

       Night after night, George held me weeping in his arms while 
     I tried to explain my feelings. I almost wonder why he didn't 
     leave me.

  But he didn't.
  In 1953, their daughter Robin died of leukemia before her fourth 
birthday. The family struggled significantly with that. In fact, even 
President Bush 43 referenced it yesterday at the funeral here in 
Washington, DC, but George Bush wrote about it during that time period 
as well. He wrote about the loss of their daughter Robin, who died at 3 
years old. He wrote to Barbara:

       There is about our house a need. . . . We need some soft 
     blond hair to offset those crew cuts. We need a doll house to 
     stand firm against our forts and racquets and thousand 
     baseball cards.
       We need someone who's afraid of frogs. . . . We need a 
     little one who can kiss without leaving an egg or jam or gum.
       We need a girl.
       We had one once--she'd fight and cry and play and make her 
     way, just like the rest. But there was about her a certain 
     softness.
       She was patient--her hugs were just a little less wiggly.
       But she is still with us. We need her and yet we have her. 
     We can't touch her, and yet we can feel her.
       We hope she'll stay in our house for a long, long time.

  In 1953, even in times of personal struggle, their love for each 
other and their tenacious compassion and passion for their family 
carried them through.
  George Bush was at his wife's side when she died earlier this year, 
on April 12, at age 92.
  On George Bush's 18th birthday, he enlisted in the Armed Forces. As I 
mentioned before, he was the youngest pilot in the Navy when he 
received his wings. He flew 58 combat missions during World War II.
  He served two terms as a Representative to Congress from Texas and 
ran unsuccessfully for the Senate--though his dad's desk, when he was 
in the Senate, was right there when he was a U.S. Senator.
  President Bush served as the Chief Diplomatic Envoy in China, even 
before the United States had formally opened the official Beijing 
Embassy.
  He became the 11th Director of the Central Intelligence Agency--which 
was, at that time, called the DCI--from 1976 to 1977. He is the only 
President who previously held that position. Interesting enough, many 
people don't know that the CIA headquarters in Langley are actually 
named for President Bush and have been that way for a long time.
  It was an interesting season when he was the leader of the CIA in the 
1970s. There was a lot of mistrust between U.S. citizens and Central 
Intelligence. At that time, President Bush did something exceptional as 
the Director of Central Intelligence. He actually provided 
transparency--a radical idea--where he would come to the Hill and 
invite Members of the House and the Senate to his house, and they would 
have informal dinners to talk about what they were doing. He came to 
the Hill 51 times to testify before the House and the Senate, a record 
that is still unsurpassed by any Director of National Intelligence. It 
is a remarkable record of transparency and of leadership.
  In 1980, he campaigned for the Presidency but lost. Then he was 
tapped by the President he lost to in the primary, a gentleman named 
Ronald Reagan, to be his Vice President. Interestingly enough, at 50 
years old, which I am today, the first President I really remember 
watching was President Reagan--and Vice President Bush--to see how they 
handled things. It was remarkable leadership during that time period.
  In 1988, he won the Republican nomination for President and then 
became President--the first President I ever had the opportunity to 
vote for. At that time, I was 20 years old. So for my first time ever 
to vote for President, I had the privilege to vote for President Bush 
and the honor to sit in the Cathedral yesterday to recognize his life.
  He was a remarkable President for being a one-term President--pushing 
back the Sandinistas who were ravaging Nicaragua; transitioning Europe 
out of the Cold War; finishing the Cold

[[Page S7336]]

War without a shot being fired; unifying Germany when most of Europe, 
as the Soviet Union fell and the Berlin Wall fell after Reagan's famous 
``Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall''--the wall didn't actually come 
down at that moment; it came down during the Bush administration, as 
they led Germany out of that and then into unification, even though 
most of Europe did not want a unified Germany, remembering still what a 
unified Germany did during World War II. He led through that.
  He led, as President, Americans to start thinking about other 
Americans in a new way, to stop saying so much that the government 
should provide for every issue, though the government has a role. But 
he pushed back on something he called the ``thousand points of light'' 
and challenged Americans to take care of their neighbors in their 
neighborhoods and for us not to look toward Washington, DC, to solve 
each problem but for nonprofits and communities and churches and the 
engagement of neighbor to neighbor to be able to turn around a nation. 
It was a remarkable calling for us to be called to each other.
  In 1992, he lost his bid for reelection. But it is interesting that 
in his speech, just after he lost the election, he made this statement:

       I hope history will record that the Bush administration has 
     served America well. I am proud of my Cabinet and my staff. 
     America has led the world through an age of global 
     transition; we've made the world safer for our kids. And I 
     believe the real fruits of our global victory are yet to be 
     tasted.

  If he were seated here today, I would tell him: We are still tasting 
the fruits of that freedom.
  He made this statement, as well, at the same time:

       Ours is a nation that has shed the blood of war and cried 
     the tears of depression. We have stretched the limits of 
     human imagination and seen the technologically miraculous 
     become almost mundane. Always, always, our advantage has been 
     our spirit, a constant confidence, a sense that in America 
     the only things not yet accomplished are the things that have 
     not yet been tried.

  Then he said this:

       President-elect Clinton needs all Americans to unite behind 
     him so he can move our nation forward. But, more than that, 
     he will need to draw upon this unique American spirit.

  Multiple individuals have recently referenced the letter that 
President Bush left for President Clinton on the desk in the Oval 
Office so that when the transition occurred, President Clinton would 
walk into his new office in 1993 and see this letter that ends with 
this statement, dated January 20, 1993. It is a long note, but it ends 
with this handwritten statement:

       You will be our President when you read this note.

  And he underlined the word ``our.''

       I wish you well. I wish your family well.
       Your success is now our country's success. I am rooting 
     hard for you.

  That is a pretty remarkable statement for someone who had just been 
beaten in the campaign to then turn as an American leader and say: 
America still continues, and we are rooting for your success.
  He left office and continued to serve, continued to press the 
``thousand points of light,'' continued to encourage people to serve 
their neighbors and to serve each other, and he continued to love his 
beautiful Barbara.
  He celebrated watching his kids get elected to office, including 
President of the United States, but he continued to be who he was--a 
gentle, compassionate, faith-filled person, who wanted the best for our 
Nation.
  He showed us how to lose gracefully and not make enemies of our 
adversaries, and he turned political foes into lasting friends. 
Interestingly enough, on June 12 of this year, on his 94th birthday, he 
wrote a note again to some friends. In that note he wrote earlier this 
year, he said:

       I am truly touched and overwhelmed by all the messages I 
     have received today. And although I have seen them all, I can 
     no longer answer them all. My 94-year-old hands would rebel. 
     Just know I appreciated hearing from you. As many of you 
     know, for years I have said the three most important things 
     in life are faith, family, and friends. My faith has never 
     been stronger. I am blessed with the world's most loving 
     family. And thanks to you, I feel the love of the best 
     friends a man ever had. My heart is full on this first day of 
     my 95th year.

  As I walked out of the funeral yesterday, I turned to the person next 
to me and said: I think that is the first political funeral or event I 
have ever been to where I have been able to honor a life where Jesus 
got equal time.
  At a lot of funerals, it is all about them. President Bush shaped a 
funeral where it was as much about his relationship with God as it was 
about his history and legacy. It is a remarkable reminder of a man who 
prioritized, as he said, his faith, his family, and his friends, and it 
sets an example for the Nation.
  He was around Oklahoma a lot, as well. He popped in and out. He spoke 
at Oklahoma State University at graduation while he was President. In 
fact, he made a famous comment about stopping in at Eskimo Joe's, a 
local restaurant there, and he endorsed the cheese fries in front of 
thousands of people and across the Nation.
  He stopped in at a different time at Cattlemen's restaurant in 
Oklahoma City. He popped in and ate a great steak. He said: If you are 
ever in Oklahoma, stop in at Cattlemen's. Folks at Cattlemen's still 
talk about the time President Bush showed up and had a steak. He met 
everybody in the restaurant, and he even went into the kitchen and met 
all the cooks. The folks still remember it well.
  He stopped in at Enid with Don Nickles. In fact, Don Nickles, my 
predecessor Senator, tells the story that he went to Maine at one 
point, when he was the whip in the Senate, to have a briefing with 
President Bush and a small group at his place in Maine. While he was 
there, the President offered to take him on a quick boat ride to be 
able to get over, and President Bush was notorious for his speedboat, 
in which he put people and just rammed the throttle full speed in 
takeoff, because his boat could go faster than the Secret Service boat 
that was following them, and he loved to be able to outrun them and 
take off.
  Even after his retirement as President, there is the story from one 
of our staff members who writes about a friend who was a student at 
Texas A&M University, where the President had his library. He tells the 
story of this 20-year-old student named Michael, who is serving as a 
personal aide to the Bush Foundation and how one day in the morning 
President Bush walked up to this 20-year-old who was working there and 
said: Are you hungry?
  To which he replied: I am always hungry.
  President Bush took him to lunch that day. This was in 2004. The two 
of them sat, and the President peppered him with questions about his 
family, about his background, and about his siblings. Michael got to 
call his family later that day and say: Hey, I just had lunch with the 
President.
  What was interesting is Michael's statement, which was this: 
President Bush made me feel like I was the President.
  May it be said of all of us: No matter what our title is, no matter 
what our position is, no matter what our place is, at the end of our 
life, we would still be talking about our faith, our family, and our 
friends--that for every person around us, we expect compassion and 
gratitude for them and to set a good example for them. May it be in our 
political discourse, and may it be in our homes and our communities.
  With that, I yield the floor.

                          ____________________