[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Pages 24180-24184]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                FAREWELL

  Mr. EDWARDS. Mr. President, life has a great way of handing us 
moments that are bittersweet. I am sad today to rise for the final time 
to represent the State of North Carolina as their Senator, but I am 
also filled with a great deal of joy because I will be heading home to 
the place and the people and the family I love so much. I also want to 
thank everyone who is listening and all Members of the Senate and the 
staff who have been so extraordinary about my wife Elizabeth for their 
prayers and their support.
  Elizabeth and I and our family draw so much strength from all of you. 
We are comforted by your words and your prayers.
  We are grateful to the more than 50,000 people who have sent e-mails 
and letters to Elizabeth. As Elizabeth's brother said when he was asked 
about it, he would not want to be cancer inside of Elizabeth's body, 
and I agree with that.
  She is the love of my life and a woman of great strength. I am sure 
she will be successful in this fight. Both of us hope and pray that by 
talking about it in the way that Elizabeth has, and with the grace and 
courage that she has shown, it will help other women who are faced with 
the same kind of struggle so they can avoid the same kind of struggle.
  Sometimes when hardship comes, one feels alone, but thanks to all of 
you and our family in the Senate, we know that we are not alone. We are 
blessed to have the love, affection, and support of our friends and our 
family, our great staff in Washington, DC, in the Senate office and 
back in North Carolina and our Senate offices there, and also the staff 
in the Senate.
  Those who serve on the floor of the Senate who have been wonderful 
friends and so much help and support for all of us, we thank all of 
them. To Marty and to Lula, whom Elizabeth and I adore, who have been 
wonderful friends to us and have advised us and shown us our way around 
here, we appreciate both of them. To the people in the cloakroom who 
have helped us and taken care of us for the last 6 years, and to the 
men and women--and I hope they will hear my voice--who take us up and 
down the elevators, whom we see as we go in and out of these office 
buildings and the Capitol, who serve all of us and who are wonderful, 
extraordinary people, I have to say, since I have come back from the 
campaign trail, to a person they have spoken their support and 
affection for Elizabeth and for our family and what we are going 
through. I just want them all to know how much they mean not only to us 
but to all of us who serve in the Senate.
  And, of course, to all the men and women I have had the privilege to 
serve with here in the Senate. To those who think the men and women who 
serve in this institution do not work hard, I wish they could spend one 
day here and see how hard it is and how devoted everyone who serves in 
the Senate is, and how much they want to do good things for the 
country--whatever our disagreements are. We have many and they are 
strong. The truth is, everyone here serves because they love their 
country and they want to do good things for their country.
  All of you, you keep us strong. You keep us going. You remind us, in 
good times and in bad, when we work together, everything is still 
possible here in America. It is the North Carolina way. That is the way 
I like to look at it. I have never loved my home State or my country 
more than I do today. We have had some triumphs, we have had some 
tragedies over the last 6 years. But one thing is clear: I will never 
stop representing the people of North Carolina, the values they 
represent and the values that I grew up with there and the values I 
believe in. The truth is, it is who I am.
  It is what I learned in Robbins, NC growing up, watching my father 
and the men and women who worked alongside him in the mill for all 
those years. It is what I learned from going to church, from going to 
our schools, and from going to all 100 counties in North Carolina, 
which I am proud to have done, and listening to the people of North 
Carolina. It is what I learned when I shook the hands of the people who 
came on Tarheel Thursday, which we had on Thursday when we were here in 
the Senate. I will never forget you.
  I will never forget the first struggle we had in the wake of 
Hurricane Floyd, hard-working people like Bobby Carraway. He owned a 
restaurant in Kinston near the Neuse River. It sat under 3 feet of 
water for days. He lost everything. He and so many like him didn't want 
a Government handout, they wanted a hand up and a chance to do what 
they were capable of doing and a chance to go back to work, which is 
all he and his family had ever known their entire lives. What we did 
then for so many, and this year, too, in the western part of our State, 
which has been hit by hurricanes and flooding, is we worked together, 
we picked ourselves up, we dusted away the disappointment, and we got 
back to work to make North Carolina stronger.
  I will also never forget the men and women who worked at Pillowtex. 
They did everything right. They took care of their families. They went 
to work every day, some of them for days and years, some of them for 
decades. They still couldn't stop their jobs from moving overseas.
  I met one woman whose question I hear over and over--I heard it over 
and over again as I traveled around the country. She looked at me and 
said: What am I supposed to do now? Have I not done what is right in 
America? I worked hard, I raised my family, I was responsible. Now my 
job is gone and what am I supposed to do?
  Together we fought to help her pay for health care and get training 
for a new job but, most importantly, we fought to keep North Carolina 
jobs in North Carolina where we need them so badly. We stood up against 
tax breaks that shipped our jobs overseas. We fought for fair trade 
that gave our workers and businesses a chance to compete, and 
represented the values we believe in.
  I will also never forget Dr. Clay Ballantine. He works at Mission St. 
Joseph's Hospital in Asheville, NC. Every day he sees kids and adults 
and seniors who come in with respiratory problems, problems with 
asthma. He told his story as we fought the battle to protect the 
quality of our air for our children and for our seniors.
  I will never forget the farmers and the men and women who live in our

[[Page 24181]]

small towns, our rural areas where I grew up. That is who I am. The 
truth is, you are the heart and soul of North Carolina. When our 
farmers were struggling, especially our tobacco farmers, I am proud in 
the end we were able to do something, to do something to help them, 
because they deserve it. They have done so much for their towns and 
their communities and for my State. They deserve something, finally, to 
be done to help them and support them. All of us together were able to 
do that.
  It also matters, it matters to good, hard-working people like Blythe 
and Gwendolyn Casey. They have had a family farm for decades. They did 
their part and they never dreamed they would be close to retiring, 
mired in debt, debt they can never recover from. Together we helped 
them and we maintained family farms across our State of North Carolina.
  I will never forget the mothers and the fathers, the husbands and the 
wives, the brothers and the sisters who wanted nothing but to make sure 
their loved one got the care they needed in their darkest hour. 
Together with Senator John McCain and Senator Kennedy, my friends and 
my colleagues, two men for whom I have enormous respect and affection, 
we went to work on something that matters--making sure you and your 
doctors could make your own health care decisions, especially when they 
were important to you and your family. It wasn't easy. There were 
lobbyists all over this place from every drug company, HMO, and big 
insurance company. They prowled these halls, but we did it and we got 
the Patients' Bill of Rights passed in the Senate. I have absolute 
faith that the Senate will do it again and the President will sign the 
Patients' Bill of Rights into law for all Americans.
  I will also never forget the brave soldiers I met in Afghanistan on a 
dark night. They are so proud--they were so proud and still are--of 
serving their country, going after terrorists and Osama bin Laden. I 
will never forget the thousands of men and women from Fort Bragg, Camp 
Lejeune, Cherry Point, Seymour Johnson, and Pope Air Force bases, who 
were serving this country abroad and who were serving the country at 
home, and whose families were there to support them. I represented them 
and represented their families and it was an extraordinary honor for me 
to be able to represent them.
  It is simple for me. If you take care of us, if you serve our country 
to protect the freedoms and ideals we cherish, we should be there for 
you. Your country should be there for you. That means health care and 
housing, it means relief on your student loans, and help covering your 
child care cost when your spouse has to go to work.
  The men and women who wear the uniform of the United States of 
America, they are who we think of and pray for when we look at our 
flag. The Stars and Stripes wave for them. The word ``hero'' was made 
for them. They are the best and the bravest, and we will always stand 
with you when you are standing in harm's way. This is what we have 
fought for together. It is something of which we should all be proud.
  We built on North Carolina's model to improve our schools, to 
strengthen standards, to expand afterschool, and to pay teachers more. 
We fought to strengthen security at our ports and our borders, chemical 
and nuclear plants, and to give our police and firefighters the support 
they needed to keep this country safe. We fought to make Washington 
live within its budget, to make sure Washington did what most families 
in America do every single day, to live within their means, and to 
restore fiscal responsibility. And we fought to reward work--not just 
wealth, work--and to ensure that the American dream stays alive and 
available to every single American, no matter where they live or who 
their family is or what the color of their skin. This is the America we 
believe in. This is the America we fought for.
  All my life I have fought for those who do not have a voice. I did it 
before I came to the Senate. I have done it here in the Senate. I will 
do it for the rest of my life. It is what my life has been about: 
Fighting for people who need someone to fight for them.
  I thank Senator Byrd for all of his guidance and for showing me the 
ropes during the time I have been here in the Senate.
  I want to take a moment and say a word about Senator Reid, who has 
also been a great leader here in the Senate and who I want to wish 
Godspeed in the important work in front of him.
  Again, my thanks to my leader, to our leader, Senator Daschle, for 
the work he has done and the leadership he has shown and the grace and 
strength and courage he has shown in leading in very difficult times, 
as others have said. He is a good and decent man and we all look up to 
him and respect him.
  I thank Senator McCain and Senator Kennedy for including me in 
working on the Patients' Bill of Rights, two great leaders in this 
Senate, two great leaders for the country, two Americans that Americans 
do and should look up to and respect.
  I thank my friend, my seatmate, Senator Evan Bayh, for all the times 
we have spent together, working here on the floor of the Senate, 
running together. He and his wife and his family are great friends of 
ours. His friendship means the world to me.
  I also thank my fellow Senate retirees Senator Breaux and Senator 
Hollings. One thing I guarantee you: Our accents will be missed here on 
the floor of the Senate. Hopefully, there will be others who will be 
able to speak the way we speak.
  I also want to say a word about my friend Senator Kerry. I embarked a 
few months ago on a journey with Senator Kerry, a fight, as we traveled 
across the country and fought for the things in which we believe. We 
shared our hopes for this country together. We worked hard to make 
America stronger. I developed a very strong, close, personal friendship 
with John Kerry during that time. John Kerry is a good man and he is a 
good American. I got the chance to see him when others didn't, when 
there were no cameras around, when there were no crowds. This is a man 
of strength and conviction and courage. He loves his children. He has a 
beautiful family, by the way. He and his wife Teresa and their kids 
became very close with my family and our children.
  We feel an enormous affection for them and enormous connection with 
them because we were engaged in what we thought was a very important 
cause. It still is a very important cause.
  But the reality is that John Kerry is somebody who has loved this 
country his entire life. He stood up and fought for this country his 
entire life. I am proud to have been able to spend the last few months 
fighting alongside him as he traveled throughout the country and the 
work that he did not just in this campaign but for all the years he 
served in this Senate before this campaign, and the years he will serve 
from here on are important. Every day he walks onto the floor of this 
Senate, the American people will be better for it.
  He is my friend. He is my colleague. I trust him.
  I believe, of course, that he would have made a great President, and 
I believe he has great work to do for this country in the days and 
years to come. It is an honor for me to be able to serve with him in 
this term.
  I also want to thank my staff. I ask unanimous consent to have their 
names printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

       Sophie Milam, Blair B. Milligan, Joyce Mitchell, Carlos A. 
     Monje, Kevin A. Monroe, Robert Morgan, Matthew L. Nelson, 
     Elizabeth E. Nicholas, Ashley I. O'Bryan, Sacha M. Ostern, 
     Joseph W. Parry-Hill, Lauren Partner, Elizabeth Pegram, 
     Philip J. Peisch, Sarah L. Pendergraft.
       Anthony Petty, Aaron S. Pickrell, Lesley Pittman, Sally 
     Bussey Plyler, Mary Margaret Propes, Hunter L. Pruett, 
     Jacqueline F. Ray, Karen A. Robb, David E. Roberts, Judith M. 
     Rossabi, David A. Russell, Craig J. Saperstein, Heidi 
     Schneble, David G. Sewell, David L. Sherlin.
       Joseph L. Smalls, Julianna Smoot, Joshua H. Stein, Michael 
     Sullivan, Johathan Sumrell, Adrian Talbott, Noelle Shelby 
     Talley, Bradford T. Thompson, Cindy E. Townes, Brooke I. 
     Turner, Ann S. Vaughn, Jannice T. Verne, Rebecca Walldorff, 
     Jewell E. Wilson, Jessica F. Wintringham, Andrew A. Young, 
     Lisa E. Zeidner.


[[Page 24182]]

  Mr. EDWARDS. Mr. President, we couldn't do the work we do here 
without the support and help of all those who work so hard with us 
every single day. You show up every day. You show up every day, in my 
case as I saw it, with a simple question: What can I do to make my 
country better? And you did. Those of you who worked with me, I know 
that you did; I saw it. I saw the hard work you did, and you will 
continue to do it because you believe public service is an important 
and noble calling. I thank you personally. I thank you on behalf of the 
people of North Carolina and the people of this country. I have seen 
the hard work you have done, and it is important.
  This fight goes on.
  I will be home in a place I love, North Carolina, the place that made 
me love America to begin with. I am going to have God's gift--more time 
to hear the screen door slam when my young kids run through the house 
after school. I still have a couple of young kids, Emma Claire, who is 
6, and Jack, who is 4. I will be able to spend more time with my older 
daughter Kate, who graduated from college and was out on the campaign 
trail. I am very proud of her. I will have more time to spend with my 
own parents and my family and more time to be there for the woman I 
love and have loved for a long time now, my wife Elizabeth.
  It is bittersweet knowing what we have accomplished. And it is also 
bittersweet knowing what is left to be done. There is so much work left 
to be done in this country.
  And in the end, I always think of North Carolina's own Thomas Wolfe. 
He said:

       I believe that we are lost here in America, but I believe 
     we shall be found. And this belief, which mounts now to the 
     catharis of knowledge and conviction, is for me--and I think 
     for all of us--not only our own hope but, America's 
     everlasting, living dream.

  Our job is making sure that no one--no one--is lost in America; that 
that dream is everlasting. And together we will continue to make it 
stronger and more alive for all who grace our lives.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I would like to make some comments about 
our friends who are departing the Senate.
  I thank Senator Edwards for spending some time in this Chamber. When 
you came in, we were faced with some tough legal issues. We turned to 
you and you stepped up to the plate. I appreciate that. I thought you 
did us proud--I am not only speaking as a Democrat, I am speaking as an 
American--on the campaign trail with the passion for people. You are so 
articulate and you brought the economic issues home to everyone. I 
think everyone is better for it.
  You are right about Senator Kerry. I think he would have made a great 
President. I think history will look at his campaign and be kind to him 
because John Kerry had dignity in his campaign. He stuck to the issues. 
The debates were fantastic. I believe it served our President well. He 
had to step up to the plate as well on many of the issues.
  I also want to say how much I am going to miss Fritz Hollings, an 
amazing man; protector of the consumers, guardian of the budget.
  Senator Graham is a champion on the environment and some other 
issues, protecting senior citizens and Social Security. We will need to 
hear his voice.
  Senator Breaux was always out there trying to pull us together.
  I have to say a word about Senator Fitzgerald because of some tough 
environmental votes. There he was standing with me. I remember one time 
he said, I have to stand with you because my son will never talk to me 
again. It was good to work with him as well.
  I want to finish my remarks by saying Tom Daschle is a man of great 
courage and compassion and wisdom, quiet leadership. I think today as 
we listened to his remarks, his farewell to the Senate, we saw his 
goodness, we saw his intelligence, and as my senior Senator said, it is 
tough to imagine people wanting something different than what Tom 
Daschle offered them. But that is what it is about. It is about 
elections.
  I say that Tom Daschle will go down as a great leader of this Senate, 
as a man who put issues ahead of his own personal gain. I think he is a 
role model for each and every one of us. He is a class act.
  I say to him and Linda, Godspeed. I know that in future years you 
will be very much on the scene because you have so much to offer. You 
have such a sense of history and such a sense of the future. It is 
bittersweet. But it is an honor to have known Tom.
  Thank you very much.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, I want to close by associating myself with 
the remarks of the Senator from California and her regards and respect 
to the other retiring Members, particularly Senator Edwards who has 
just spoken and has distinguished himself so impressively over the last 
year and half in the service of our country by seeking the Vice 
Presidency.
  I am proud of my State of Minnesota. They cast by a majority over 
100,000 votes for Senator Edwards and Senator Kerry, reflecting the 
wisdom of voters in the tremendous excitement of Senator Edwards and 
Senator Kerry. But Senator Edwards, in my personal experience, 
generated tremendous courage and enthusiasm in St. Paul, MN on Labor 
Day and on the Iron Range in Minnesota. He has a very bright future in 
whatever future endeavors.
  I join my colleagues in expressing to his wife Elizabeth our prayers 
for a speedy recovery. I think that will be the result.
  I thank the Senator for his outstanding service and as leader of our 
party and our country.
  I also want to join my colleagues in expressing my highest personal 
regard for Senator Daschle. It is, like others, a hard time for me. It 
was very hard in the next day after the election to hear the results in 
South Dakota. I have always had and will continue to have the greatest 
respect for the democratic process in this country. It is the ultimate 
and appropriate judgment of the people. I felt that way even when I 
disagreed with the verdicts they rendered.
  I must say to the very slightest of majority, the voters of my 
neighboring State in South Dakota, with all due respect to them and 
their rightful judgment, that in my humble opinion you were wrong. You 
cannot fully understand the extraordinary leader, the superb public 
servant, and the phenomenal human being you had in Tom Daschle as your 
Senator, and as all of us in his caucus knew we had in our Democratic 
leader.
  What makes it so hard is he has been taken away from us despite our 
wishes, and taken away from the country. And it is very hard. It is 
hard, frankly, to hear all the false praise of someone who went beyond 
the boundaries of comity, of bipartisanship, of deserved respect for a 
leader, who campaigned against Tom, who violated the boundaries of his 
own State and disparaged him; and, most recently, the comments of the 
incoming chairwoman of the Republican Senate Campaign Committee which 
were untrue, unwarranted, and just plain foul. Tom Daschle has too much 
decency to say so.
  That was the irony in and the indecency of those remarks. They were 
directed after the election, after the victory against the most decent 
man I have ever met in politics, Tom Daschle. He is a gentleman in the 
very best sense of that word: strong in his principles, firm in his 
convictions, fierce in his dedication to serving the people of South 
Dakota and their best interests, but a gentleman in his decency, his 
personal respect and the senatorial courtesies he extended to every one 
of his colleagues.
  But Tom, being the man he is, would not want me to end on such a 
note. So I will not. I end by thanking him, thanking him for his 
leadership over the last 4 years, from the time during which I have 
been privileged to serve under his leadership, for mentoring me, giving 
me the opportunities I have had in committee assignments, to listening 
to me and offering his astute guidance and experience and wisdom. I 
thank

[[Page 24183]]

him for showing me by his living example every day and every night in 
the Senate what it means to be a great Senator, what it entails, the 
dedication, the hard work, the hours, the travel; what it means when 
you can do what Tom Daschle has done for his State to save people's 
lives, to improve people's lives, create new opportunities for young 
and old, what he has done for his country, what he has done for people 
who are not his constituents who cannot even thank him and won't be 
able to vote for him. But that did not matter because he had the 
opportunity and he seized the opportunity to do things that benefited 
their lives.
  Thank you, Tom Daschle. Thank you for being a superb leader. Thank 
you for being a great Senator. Thank you for being a phenomenal human 
being. I wish you well.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Ensign). The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, we could not help but note the sadness 
we all experienced as our friend and leader, Tom Daschle, made his 
goodbye speech. As usual, when Tom Daschle spoke, it had meaning, 
substance. He certainly had that as he closed his chapter here--I hope 
not his book, just his chapter.
  He talked about things he cared about and people he cared about and 
what it is that drove him to take this job. Everyone knows how 
difficult a task being a leader in the Senate is. It is not always 
realized outside this Chamber how hard one has to work to please so 
many, to sacrifice so much in terms of personal life.
  Tom Daschle, our leader, distinguished Senator from South Dakota, 
outstanding leader--not just for this side of the aisle but the entire 
country. He lost an extremely tough, close race a couple of weeks ago.
  Tom Daschle is the stuff of which so many of our lives in the Senate 
are made.
  It is a sad day. It is not just a sad day for me, who treasured the 
friendship I had with Tom Daschle, listened carefully to his words and 
followed, for the most part, the directions he portrayed for all 
Members here, it is a sad day, obviously, for Tom Daschle's family; it 
is a sad day for the Senate and a sad day for everyone in this great 
country of ours.
  I said Tom is the stuff of which so many of our lives are made. It is 
quite hard to see in this place of splendor the route so many Members 
took to get here. There is a substantial difference in age between Tom 
Daschle and me but I had a similar experience. I was the first in my 
family to go to college. My parents were hard-working people. They did 
not work on a farm but they worked in the store. They worked in the 
mills. My father worked in the silk mills of Patterson, NJ, a factory 
town.
  What was the legacy they imparted? It was to work hard, to believe in 
America, to believe in yourself. Try to achieve a degree of respect and 
dignity. That is what my father did for me, even after I had enlisted 
in the Army and he was on his deathbed from cancer. The messages were 
all profound: work, study, learn.
  He took me into his factory one time and said: You must never work 
like this, so dirty, so dusty, so noisy, so dangerous. He knew it was 
dangerous, that there was something in the weaving of that silk fabric 
where they used chemicals to keep it from growing too brittle, to keep 
the machinery oiled. It took my father, his brother, their father, at 
very young ages.
  When we hear Tom Daschle talk about his background, how his parents 
worked to provide him with not the funds but the incentive to make 
something of his life, to give something back to America, we know Tom 
Daschle is a model for so many to follow, with that commitment to 
decency and honor.
  It is a sad day when we reflect on what happened in Tom Daschle's 
last race. He wanted to be here. We wanted him to be here. Tom has been 
an effective leader for us for 10 years. The Republicans threw 
everything they could at him, including some $20 million in that race, 
including some insults in recent days. And then to not permit the man 
to leave with grace and hold his head high--no, called him an 
obstructionist.
  I know when the shoe is on the other foot what happens, when the 
minority has to fight like the devil to keep from being rolled over by 
the majority. We saw it when we were in charge. How I miss those days 
when we were in charge. The Republican Party, the minority party, they 
did their filibustering. They did their obstruction. They did the 
things needed to protect the interests they thought served their 
constituents, their States, and their country.
  It was ungracious when the Republican side could not find enough of 
their Members to sit here out of respect. I remember being here when 
Bob Dole left and I could not wait to sit in my chair and salute his 
contribution to America and to this body, because, although Bob Dole 
could disagree with you, he was always interested in the well-being of 
the country. You saw it from the result of his service to country and 
the military.
  I do not know why, in the closing days, some element of comity, some 
element of grace, some element of respect for a human being could not 
have gotten some of our friends out of their offices to come down to 
the floor. You saw the applause. The applause that I paid most of the 
attention to was from the people who work back here, the people who saw 
Tom Daschle at work every day. They know what he meant to them 
personally, to this country, to this institution. That is why they 
stood and applauded so vigorously. You saw Tom's colleagues standing 
here, hating to let go, hating to let him leave the room. They did it 
with their applause and their hugs, their glances, and their tears.
  So we are sorry that the Tom Daschle segment of service to this 
country and to this body is over. As usual, as always, there was a 
characteristic graciousness in his departure, in acknowledging that he 
had lost the race. Everyone here has some sense of how painful it could 
be, especially being leader of the party, especially when they threw 
everything in the book at him that they could pick up.
  It is not going to be easy to forget Tom Daschle. We are going to 
miss him. He had wonderful service to country. He served as an 
intelligence officer in the Air Force for 3 years. He won his first 
race. Many cited the chronology of his climb to leader of the 
Democratic Senate. He carved out a national reputation. People knew who 
he was, but he never forgot his South Dakota constituents.
  We heard him talk about them. He talked about traveling to each of 
the State's counties every year as an unscheduled driving tour, where 
he stopped at the local clubs, the Elks Club, the cattle auctions, the 
health clinics, schools, cafes, police stations, or any other place 
where people could gather to hear him talk about what was on his mind, 
and to listen to them talk about what was on their mind.
  Tom has been an effective legislator. His aim: to help his 
constituents, help his country, help those who were less fortunate 
across America. He fought hard for small farmers in his State.
  We did not always agree. Those of us who come from an urban 
environment disagreed with some of the votes he took. But he always 
remembered from whence he came. He fought hard for the people that he 
believed in, for Native Americans from his State, veterans exposed to 
Agent Orange. I joined him in that fight because I always believed 
anyone who had any remote contact, no matter how remote or how short a 
period of time, with Agent Orange should be treated as any other 
veteran or any other soldier who had a wound because we know what Agent 
Orange has done to so many who have served so well, so loyally in a war 
we could not agree on, much like what we are seeing now in our country. 
And we had to respect his insistence that we remember these people, the 
seniors, and the people in the rural parts of the country where the 
economy has never really been robust.
  Nature always takes its toll. But Tom insisted we fight back, that we 
make sure the farm community continued to exist in this country so we 
could

[[Page 24184]]

produce the nutrition that is so vital--the products we all use so 
regularly.
  And Tom is so young looking, soft spoken, self-effacing, and 
fundamentally decent. He was actually mistaken for a paperboy one time. 
But beneath that wonderful exterior, that almost placid view of things, 
there was a spine of steel. He could get up and fight hard and fight 
for the issues. His leadership for us--and, believe me, it was not 
easy. It is not easy on the Democratic side, it is not easy on the 
Republican side, I am sure, to pull everybody together because each of 
us has differences that come from our geography, from our State, from 
the culture within our States. But the fact is, Tom could get us 
together on the most difficult issues, not always 100 percent, not 
always in victory, but always with vigor and always with commitment.
  Tom has devoted practically all his entire life to public service. We 
are going to miss his leadership, his counsel, and his friendship.
  In my closing comments to him I said: We are saying kind of so long 
but hopefully not really goodbye. We want to hear from Tom Daschle. I 
have made a plea to him that he stays involved with the public 
interest. I hope he is going to do that. Tom will have many offers for 
commercial development and to make lots more money, but he feels an 
obligation down deep, as I would think most of us or all of us do here, 
to try to do something that counts.
  I encourage him and his great wife Linda to get through this 
difficult, difficult period. It is not easy when you are the leader to 
lose a race. It is never easy, but it is particularly difficult when 
you have had leadership responsibilities.
  So my message to Tom is: Tom, keep that spine of steel. Keep that 
interest that you have in the well-being of our society, in the belief 
that America can recover from all kinds of difficulties, some of the 
worst that we are facing right now. It is not just the war, as painful 
as that is.
  I have a display in front of my office of young faces, of people, 
many of whom are in their teens, late teens, 18, 19. I enlisted in the 
Army when I was 18. I did not realize then I was such a baby. I realize 
now that 18 is so, so young. But I have those photographs there as 
reminders about what the price of this war really is. It is not just 
the financial side, which is enormous. It is not just the humiliation 
side, which is enormous, the humiliation because we failed to have the 
appropriate intelligence, intelligence to tell us even most recently 
how difficult Fallujah was going to be. We underestimated, and as a 
consequence the costs are heavy. In the last week, we lost two people 
from New Jersey. We are now over 1,200 who have died in the course of 
that fight.
  But again, Tom Daschle, and I think all of us here, have to continue 
to fight for what is right. We can endure our differences here. I will 
tell you what we cannot endure. We cannot endure the bitterness that 
exists across the dividing line here. We cannot endure the vitriol that 
is constant in this room of ours. We cannot endure the anger that 
exists. We have a cause that is greater than all of us.
  I am not saying it all comes flowing this way, but I am saying it is 
unpleasant. I have now had 22 years since I arrived. It is now 22 years 
since I arrived in the Senate. I remember different days. I remember 
days when you could disagree and still be able to say hello without 
grimacing when you saw one of your colleagues. Lord willing, I hope Tom 
Daschle taught us some of that, with his graciousness, his 
characteristic willingness to listen and to understand and get back to 
you when a problem existed.
  So, Mr. President, I am going to yield the floor, but I do want to 
talk about our other colleagues who are retiring in a few minutes. 
There are a lot of good people here on both sides of the aisle.
  We are going to miss all of our friends over here, but I am going to 
miss Don Nickles. I have had a lot of fights with him, but I know he 
always knew where he wanted to go. I respected that.
  Peter Fitzgerald, newer among us, but a gentleman to be noted, and 
Ben Nighthorse Campbell comes from a State I love. I have two 
grandchildren there. He is a decent fellow. We are going to miss all of 
them. I will talk about them later.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Idaho is recognized.
  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I know this is a time of recognition of our 
retiring Members on both the Republican and Democratic sides. If I can 
step in for a moment, we have cleared a variety of bills to be moved at 
this time. I will proceed to do that.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is recognized for that purpose.

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