[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Page 20847]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           THE GUEST CHAPLAIN

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Alaska for his usual 
courtesies. I will take time on our side briefly.
  I thank the Senate Chaplain, Dr. Ogilvie, for his courtesy in 
inviting today's visiting Chaplain, Father Claude Pomerleau. Father 
Pomerleau is very special to me; he is my brother-in-law. He is the 
chairman of the department of history and political science at the 
University of Portland. He has a distinguished career, a doctorate from 
the University of Denver, where actually one of his lead professors was 
Dr. Madeleine Albright's father. He speaks many, many languages. He is 
seen as a leading authority on Latin America. He teaches in Chile as 
well as at the University of Portland--in fact, he just came back from 
there.
  I could go through all these things about him, but from a personal 
point of view he is very special to me. His sister, Marcelle, and I 
have been married now for 38 years, and he was present when we were 
married, as were his brother Rene and his father and mother, Phil and 
Cecile Pomerleau. Phil and Cecile are no longer with us, but I have a 
feeling they look down in pride at their son this morning, as we all 
do. He is a teacher, he is a mentor, a brother, a son, a beloved 
uncle--in our family he has been all of those and more.
  He has been a very dear friend to me. I think of what Edward Everett 
Hale, a former distinguished Senate Chaplain, once said. He was asked:

       Do you pray for the Senators, Dr. Hale?

  And he said:

       No, I look at the Senators and I pray for the country.

  I am privileged to have a brother who not only prays for the country, 
but prays for this Senator. I consider it, in my 26 years here, one of 
the rarest privileges I have had to be able to see him on the floor.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
  Mr. REID. Will the Senator yield for a comment about Senator Leahy?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator yield?
  Mr. MURKOWSKI. I yield.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, before Senator Leahy and his brother-in-law 
leave, I want the good Father to know how much the Senate cares about 
you and Marcelle. You have expressed so well your feelings about your 
brother-in-law, but we want you to know how much the entire Senate on 
both sides of the aisle respects Senator Leahy and your lovely sister.

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