[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 20877]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             SENATOR WARNER

  Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, let me preface my intended remarks. I 
seldom have occasion to take exception to the remarks made by the very 
distinguished chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee on which 
I am honored to serve, but I must say that I respectfully disagree with 
the modesty by which he characterized himself as anything less than one 
of the real greats in the Senate. In my estimation, the Senator from 
Virginia ranks up among the greats of the Senate from the beginning of 
our Nation's proud heritage and through the years.
  I believe the Senator has now completed 25 years of extraordinary 
service on behalf of not only the citizens of Virginia but also the 
citizens of Minnesota and the citizens of this country. When I was one-
hundredth in Senate seniority for my first 2 years, I had some doubts 
about the worth of the seniority system. I was dissuaded whenever I 
would see the Senator from Virginia, Mr. Warner, act as chairman of the 
Senate Armed Services Committee, then as its ranking member, and now as 
chairman again, of that most important committee.
  When I recently had a chance to travel with him to Iraq and saw his 
fortitude and his determination to serve the best interests of our 
country, or when matters of great importance to the future of this 
country and this world came before the Senate Armed Services Committee, 
I was always reassured by the knowledge that the Senator from Virginia, 
Mr. Warner, was chairman of that committee, and acting with the very 
distinguished ranking member, Senator Levin from Michigan. I believed 
that our democracy was in the best possible hands. The wisdom of the 
seniority system with a man of that stature serving in that role was 
certainly upheld. I would just like to acknowledge that his own modesty 
prevented him from saying what I know that my colleagues join with me 
on both sides of the aisle in saying, that this man is one of the true 
greats of the Senate on this day or any day.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I thank our distinguished colleague. He is 
a very active member of the Armed Services Committee. Indeed, he did 
make reference to our excellent trip of nine Senators into Iraq, 3 days 
in country. It was a very important mission, defining exactly what I 
tried to enumerate in my remarks earlier, our responsibility to the men 
and women of the Armed Forces and their families. I thank the Senator.
  Mr. DAYTON. I thank also the Presiding Officer for his forbearance in 
permitting my remarks this afternoon. I had the opportunity to serve on 
many of these occasions in the previous 2 years as Presiding Officer. I 
know how my heart sank when yet another Senator would arrive on the 
floor to make his or her remarks. I thank the Presiding Officer for 
this opportunity and his forbearance as well.

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