[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 131 (Tuesday, July 27, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5075-S5076]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Remembering Mike Enzi

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I always consider it a privilege to open 
the U.S. Senate, be here for the pledge of allegiance, be here for the 
Chaplain's prayer. But I must admit this morning that I felt such a 
sense of sorrow that we were praying for my good friend Mike Enzi, whom 
I had the privilege to serve with during all the time he was in the 
U.S. Senate.
  We used to spend time together. We would talk to each other on votes 
coming up. He was the old ``old school.'' He always kept his word; he 
knew I would mine. We worked on many things.
  I did remember, through the tears this morning as I heard the news, 
of one day when I was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and 
Senator Enzi came to me and he said: You know, I know you are Italian 
American--which I am on my mother's side--and I am Italian American. 
And I have this nominee. He is one of us. He is Italian American. 
Please push him through.
  Well, the nominee backed by Senator Enzi was, of course, well 
qualified anyway. We put him on the agenda and passed him.
  A few weeks later, he came up to me, and he said: I have got another 
nominee.
  I said: How many Italian Americans do you have in Wyoming?
  He said: Oh, this is one of us. He is Irish.
  I said: Mike, what do you mean ``he is Irish''? You are Italian.
  He said: No, I am just like you, except in reverse.
  He had an Italian father and an Irish mother. I had an Irish father 
and Italian mother.
  So he said: He is one of us; you have got to get him through--of 
course, as only Mike could, in that gentle humor of his.
  And we laughed. And, of course, he was well qualified, and we put the 
nominee through.
  A couple of weeks later, he comes up to me on something else. I said: 
Do you have another nominee?
  He said: No, but I am looking for a French Canadian, and now I am 
going to call your wife Marcelle and say: This is one of us. We have 
got to get him through.
  But I tell that story only because it was typical of him. He would 
quietly meet with Senators on both sides of the aisle. We were 
different in our political philosophy, but he always worked at finding 
a way we could come together. And countless times he would bring 
Democrats and Republicans together. It was never done with any fanfare. 
He didn't seek publicity. He wasn't running to the press to say: Look 
what I did; look what I accomplished. But he had the thankfulness of 
all of us.
  He and his wife Diana and Marcelle and I have spent so many times 
together, and you felt this was somebody you could be having a backyard 
barbecue with, somebody you could just be

[[Page S5076]]

sitting together and watching a sporting event with or anything else.
  I don't know the full details of the tragic accident he had, but I 
can almost see Mike out on his bicycle, in his beautiful State, and 
enjoying the day. I do mourn his passage, not only as a friend but as 
somebody who represented what I feel the Senate has been and should be 
again. So I will yield the floor and only say I miss Mike Enzi.
  I yield the floor.