[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 1197-1198]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       A TRIBUTE TO GEORGE WEEKS

 Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, for the past 22 years, George Weeks' 
column for the Detroit News has been required reading for anyone 
interested in Michigan politics. It has been the gold standard for 
fair, insightful commentary, and I am proud to have known and worked 
with George over these years. Our mornings--and our public life--won't 
be the same without him.
  George Weeks' life and career have been spent in service to the 
people of Michigan. In a journalism career that took him to Lansing, 
MI; to Washington, DC; and around the world, George Weeks always put 
his responsibility to his readers first. And although we are honoring 
him today for his legendary accomplishments as a reporter and 
columnist, George also served his State as chief of staff to Governor 
William Milliken and his country in the U.S. Army.
  In his work as a political columnist, it has seemed at times that 
George knows everything that is happening or has ever happened in 
Michigan. He reports on which candidate wowed the crowd--or otherwise--
at a recent dinner, what issues are resonating with voters, and who he 
thinks has the right stuff to go all the way--or the other kind of 
stuff. His column is a treasure trove of political information. And not 
only does he have great information, he is also able to put it into 
perspective. George has a deep knowledge of history. He has written a 
history of Michigan through the lens of its governors as well as 
several works on Michigan's Native Americans. Although I admire his 
trove of knowledge, I do wish he would quit reminding me--and his 
readers--of how many years I have served in the Senate, a metaphor for 
the aging process.
  George has earned both the loyalty of his readers and the respect and 
admiration of those he covers. His approach is impartial, issue-
oriented, and assumes good faith on the part of public figures. He 
starts from a belief that public officials of both parties are 
motivated mostly by good intentions, not petty politics. He takes the 
view that politicians are like other people--no better and no worse--
and that public service is a worthy calling. We in public life are 
grateful for that, believe me.
  It is a great loss that George is retiring from the News because we 
need that attitude now more than ever. In recent years, there has been 
a coarsening of political life. These are meaner streets these days, 
with more personal attacks and sharp edges. With his civility and his 
moderation, George has been in the vanguard of smoothing out those 
rough edges.
  In his farewell column, George referred to me as his ``most-
interviewed Senator.'' That is a distinction I will wear with honor, 
and I want to thank him for the professional way he has treated our 
conversations. George is a man of his word, whom you can talk to with 
confidence that he will get the story straight and whom you can talk to 
in confidence from time to time as well. I don't know if George is 
counting in his tally our informal chats, including annually at the 
Cherry Festival in his beloved Traverse City. But I do know that I have 
come to look forward to those talks, and I still will.
  Thank you, George Weeks, for your years of service and for your 
magnificent, ongoing career.

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