[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Pages 23973-23974]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTES TO RETIRING SENATORS


                              Tom Daschle

  Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, it is with great sadness that I rise to 
bid official farewell to one of my best friends and to one of the 
greatest Senators ever to grace this body, Tom Daschle of South Dakota.
  Unsurprisingly, I am sure I have known Tom longer than anyone here. I 
vividly remember his first campaign for Congress in 1978, the same year 
I ran for the South Dakota House of Representatives for the first time. 
We were two young candidates, almost the same age, recent graduates, 
the same year, of South Dakota colleges. While we were running for very 
different offices, I felt an immediate bond with him at that time.
  Tom's first race for Congress was in many ways predictive of the 
career that would follow. He was then, and still is, the hardest 
working, most focused person I have ever met in any sphere of my life. 
That year he knocked on more than 40,000 doors, personally asking South 
Dakotans for their vote. I can tell you, knocking on 40,000 doors in 
the middle of a South Dakota winter is a real challenge.
  Tom looked so young he was once mistaken as the paperboy at one of 
those doors--a woman asked how much money she owed him. I have a photo 
I cherish to this day of Tom and me together during that first 
campaign, both of us looking like we were 14 years old. It makes you 
wonder how anyone voted for either of us at that time.
  I remember watching the election returns coming in for Tom's campaign 
that evening and it didn't look very good, frankly. In fact, when I 
went to bed that night I was almost certain he had lost. It was only 
when I woke up that I found Tom was only behind by 50 votes with a 
recount certain, and as it turned out, he was certified the winner 
officially by 14 votes out of 130,000 votes cast. Who would have 
dreamed that such a close victory in South Dakota would have been the 
beginning of such a distinguished career?
  In the intervening years, I watched with admiration while Tom's 
career advanced in the House of Representatives. He was a natural 
leader, and I do not believe that many who knew him were surprised, in 
1986, when he decided to run for the Senate, taking on the same man 
who, 6 years previously, defeated Senator George McGovern, an 
institution in our State.
  It was far from an easy race, but Tom prevailed in the end, and his 
leaving his House seat opened it for my election that year as well. It 
was the culmination of those two elections which led to an extremely 
close working relationship but also to a very close friendship.
  I have spent the last 18 years working side by side with Tom Daschle. 
I cannot imagine a better partner with whom to work. He is, as I 
mentioned earlier, the hardest working person I have ever known. He is 
also the most patient person I have ever known, as well as unfailingly 
generous--qualities that served him very well as Senate Democratic 
leader, an extremely demanding job.
  There have been fewer than 2,000 Senators who have served our Nation 
in this body, but there never has been one who cared as much or worked 
as hard for his home State as Tom Daschle. I can list his many and 
varied accomplishments but I would be here for hours and that would not 
serve the purpose of this farewell. It was the Greek philosopher Plato 
who said, ``The measure of a man is what he does with power.'' And it 
is that test that so clearly shows the character and the humanity and 
the values of Tom Daschle.

[[Page 23974]]

Tom never used the power that he had attained for self-aggrandizement. 
He used it to build a better South Dakota, and a stronger America.
  He has always realized that our country works best when people have 
an opportunity to live up to their own potential, when our children are 
not shackled by poverty and lack of education, when our people who need 
a helping hand are given one, and when our older Americans are able to 
live out the balance of their lives with dignity. The truth is, if it 
weren't for Tom Daschle and his untiring work, there are children who 
would not be educated and families who would not be housed and 
vulnerable people who would be uncared for.
  Tom Daschle's priorities and values have been the priorities and 
values of his strong family and his devout faith.
  It was Jesus Christ who said:

       Inasmuch as ye have done unto one of the least of these, my 
     brethren, ye have done it unto Me.

  And no matter what level of accomplishment and power Tom Daschle 
attained, he never forgot the ``least of the people'' who Christ 
referenced.
  While we will no longer have Tom Daschle to lead us in this body, we 
are both instructed and warmed by the example he gave us during his 26 
years in his congressional career. He and his wife Linda have made an 
extraordinary team and will always be among the closest of friends to 
my wife Barbara and me. I will never serve with a man I admire more 
than Tom Daschle, and it is with very great sadness that I say goodbye 
to his presence in this body. But more than anyone I have ever served 
with, or ever will serve with, he has given glory and meaning to the 
term ``United States Senator.''
  I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Alexander). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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