[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 23]
[House]
[Page 31796]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               IN GRATEFUL APPRECIATION TO DEAN AGUILLEN

  (Mr. GONZALEZ asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. GONZALEZ. Mr. Speaker, I have known Dean for a number of years, 
and we share a passion for the Spurs and he's homegrown, San Antonio.
  And Dean will tell you the story that his interest in politics was a 
result of watching my father, the late Henry B. Gonzalez, on Sundays 
when Dean was just a little boy. Now, I remember watching Dad. I was a 
lot older. But the thing was they didn't exactly give my father prime 
time. It was very early on Sunday mornings. And the reason that many of 
the children in San Antonio watched my father was that he came on right 
before the cartoons.
  So, Dean, I'm on to you. I know exactly why you were watching the 
television, and I'm glad that you watched Dad before the cartoons.
  Dean had the hardest job of anyone on Speaker Pelosi's staff. Every 
Thursday at 11:30, he would report to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus 
weekly luncheon meeting, at which time we were able to express 
ourselves and say many things that we couldn't say to the Speaker. We 
are confident that he conveyed some of it in more diplomatic terms.
  But, seriously, I think he took our message back to the Speaker. He 
was the conduit. The Speaker can't be in 200 places at one time, though 
we wish she could. So Dean was a very valuable player, obviously, in 
this whole organization and made, I believe, the Speaker's Office much 
more responsive to the needs of so many different Members of our very, 
very diverse caucus.
  And for that, Dean, we extend our grateful appreciation. We wish you 
well, but we have a sense that we are going to be seeing you, of 
course, and I am definitely going to see you when the Spurs are in the 
championship round again.

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