[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 23802-23804]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         FAREWELL TO THE SENATE

  Mr. HAGEL. On January 7, 1997, I took an oath of office in the 
Senate, an oath to the Constitution, and I became the 1,841st person 
who has ever served in the Senate. That number struck me that day 
because I recognized, once again--and soon to come to truly appreciate 
over a 12-year period in this body--how few people have had the 
opportunity, the privilege, the honor to serve in the Senate.
  Less than 2,000 Americans in the history of our country have served 
in the Senate. That does not make us better. That does not mean we are 
smarter or in any way more privileged. But it does reflect upon the 
kind of responsibility that we have in this body and the expectations 
that are placed on each of us, as should be the case, for our service.
  I first thank the people of Nebraska for the privilege I have been 
given to serve in this body for 12 years. I thank my staff not for 
their service to me but for their service to this country. I thank my 
colleagues, Republicans and Democrats, from whom I have learned so much 
over these 12 years--in particular, Senators Lugar and Biden, from whom 
I have learned much in serving with them on the Senate Foreign 
Relations Committee for the last 12 years, who have been patient with 
me, have helped me, as well as their staffs.
  The two leaders of this body--Senators Reid and McConnell--I wish to 
thank. I have had privileged relationships with each. Senator McConnell 
and I have grown to have a very close relationship, friendship, and I 
very much value that relationship. I thank Senator McConnell for his 
many courtesies over the years, as I do Senator Reid. These two men are 
charged with great responsibilities, and especially over the last 2 
years during as difficult a Congress certainly that I have served in, 
and I suspect most of my colleagues have served in. They have done a 
remarkably good and effective job.
  Certainly, I thank my family for this privilege and their support and 
their guidance. They, too, have been privileged and enriched and 
enhanced by being part of this experience over the last 12 years.
  These last 12 years have been years of global reorientation and 
historic events. As I have represented Nebraskans during these 
turbulent times, I have formed judgments and drawn conclusions about 
America's future.
  The strength of any country is its people. Constitutions, 
governments, public and private institutions are important, for they 
form the structure of a society, the boundaries of social behavior. But 
it is the people, the individuals, who make the difference in life and 
in the world.
  Americans possess a generous spirit and uncommon decency predicated 
on faith and family, hard work, fair play, and belief in a better 
tomorrow. The challenges that face America today and in the future are 
not just American challenges but global challenges. Everything we do or 
don't do has global implications, just as everything that happens 
around the world has implications for us here in our country.
  The Senate is a unique institution. It is unique among all governing 
bodies of the world. It is imperfect. It is slow. It is tedious. 
Sometimes it is maddening, certainly frustrating. But the brilliance of 
our forefathers understood completely and carefully--how, I don't 
know--that the world would at some point come together with a great 
confluence of complications. The need to have a body whose main 
responsibility would be to take the longer view--the longer view of 
legislation, the longer view of actions, the longer view of alliances, 
of relationships, of all our policies--was its primary focus. Tough 
questions--questions about consequences of actions, consequences of 
inaction--that is the essence of the Senate.
  The many lessons I have learned in the 12 years I have been here 
reinforced my belief in our country but also reinforced my belief in 
these institutions and, in particular, the Congress of the United 
States, for the essence of public

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confidence is transparency and accountability. That is our 
institutional responsibility. It is our individual responsibility. And 
a free people know the facts. If free people are living in a world 
where there is transparency, where there is accountability, that 
society will prosper. It will fix its problems, and it will deal with 
its injustices. Oversight--which we hear much about these days, 
especially in light of the financial crisis we are in today--oversight 
and accountability are critical components of our responsibilities.
  Article I of the Constitution is about the Congress. We are a coequal 
branch of Government. If there is anything I have learned in the 12 
years I have been here, it is the importance of sharing, participating 
in the governance of our country, being part of that governance, 
helping to make decisions with the President and the executive. If one 
of those articles of the Constitution--and there are three that set up 
the coequal branches of government: the legislative, the executive, and 
the judicial--but anytime there becomes an imbalance in governance in a 
republic and one of those three becomes too powerful and the other too 
weak or one too weak, there will be a consequence, there will be a 
reaction, and it will not tilt in favor of an accountable, transparent, 
open, effective government. So it is like all things in life: We strive 
for balance. We strive for balance of governance. And the Founders of 
the Constitution of this great Republic have that as much the central 
focus as any one part of our Government.
  I believe this institution of Congress will be tested more over the 
next few years. We need a strong President. We need a strong executive. 
For it is the President and the executive that we charge to carry out 
the policies that are made and shaped on behalf of the American people 
in the Congress of the United States. They must have the flexibility, 
they must have the authority to carry those out but not without the 
active participation and partnership of the Congress of the United 
States. In my opinion, over the last few years, we have allowed that to 
drift, and I believe it has cost our country dearly.
  I have also learned this lesson: Bipartisan consensus is the only way 
a democracy will work. No party has a corner on all the virtues, nor 
all the answers. A country of 300 million free people, who have every 
right to express themselves, question their leaders, question their 
Government, at the end of the day must somehow find some accommodation, 
some consensus to govern and thereby address the issues and challenges 
and problems that face our country. Without that bipartisan consensus, 
we end up in the underbrush of political paralysis. Much of what we 
have seen in the last 2 years has been, unfortunately, political 
paralysis. We all have to take some responsibility for that. Bipartisan 
consensus--that has to be the focus of leadership in any institution.
  I have learned also that a free press is indispensable to a free 
people. As frustrating as we all know, in this business, the press can 
be--sometimes we believe we are treated unfairly, and maybe sometimes 
we are--there is no substitute in a democracy for a free press. A free 
press is the indispensable element for a free people.
  I have learned too that power corrupts. Lord Acton had it right: 
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. That doesn't mean 
we are a nation or a body or an institution of corrupt people or bad 
people, but the more authority that is concentrated in too small a 
space is going to end up with not an effect that is in the best 
interests of a free people. Concentrations of power in the hands of a 
few is dangerous to a democracy. We all who exercise some power as 
national leaders must be mindful of this reality and stay vigilant to 
this reality.
  The next President, who will assume as big an inventory of challenges 
and problems as any President, in my opinion, since Franklin Roosevelt 
on March 4, 1933, must immediately reach to the Congress to make the 
Congress a partner, and regardless of who the new President is, he must 
also reach to the American people and begin building a consensus of 
governance in this country. There will be differences. There will be 
strong debates. There must be and should be. But in the end, we must 
reach some objective, some end point, and that is to fix a problem.
  We did that last night on the floor of the Senate--not that what we 
passed in this Economic Stabilization Act will fix all the problems; it 
won't. But it is important that America, our markets, the world bring 
back some confidence in our governance, in our systems, thereby 
bringing all that does flow from that confidence in a market system, 
the elements of commerce and trade and the possibilities to build a 
better life.
  This next President will be faced with those challenges. So will this 
next Congress. I believe that will occur, not just because the American 
people expect it and demand it, but they deserve it. I don't think the 
next President or the next Congress will fail. There is no perfect 
solution, no easy answer, but that is why we have leaders. That is why 
we have governments.
  I wish to go back to accountability for a moment because that is such 
an elemental part of anyone's life. We are all accountable in life. In 
our personal lives, private lives, public lives, we are all accountable 
to someone.
  I would like to read a very short statement. As a matter of fact, I 
had this hanging in my reception room in my office. This was a 
handwritten statement that was found in the coat pocket of General 
Dwight D. Eisenhower. It was found at the cleaners. This was a note he 
wrote in his hand on June 6, 1944, the beginning of the Normandy 
invasion, the invasion of Europe. We all recall that was D-day. This is 
what then-General Eisenhower, who was the commanding general, wrote in 
the event that D-day was a failure:

       Our landings have failed and I have withdrawn the troops. 
     My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon 
     the best information available. The troops, the air, and the 
     Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If 
     any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.

  Now, that is accountability. That is accountability. This one simple, 
honest, handwritten statement should be as much a guiding point for all 
of us in public office as any one thing.
  I have also learned over the last 12 years that democracy actually 
does work. As raw as it is, it works. We in politics, we in government, 
government itself, the institution of government only reflects society. 
Politics reflects society. We respond. We react in a democracy. But the 
countervailing pressures, the countervailing dynamics, the 
countervailing debates and philosophies and opinions and positions 
balance the wheel in a remarkable way. I am not near wise enough to 
understand it all. I have observed it. I have participated in it up 
close for 12 years. It works. It works. That is why transparency is so 
important, so the American people can see it and feel it and understand 
it and be part of it.
  We live in an imperfect world. There are no perfect solutions. We are 
all imperfect people. But institutions are important because within the 
imperfect world and in the process of trying to make a better world--
maybe someday a perfect world--the process is important because it gets 
us to where we want to be. It is a highway. It is a process. We do that 
well here, as well as anywhere in the world. We are always striving to 
make it better.
  I occasionally think about this great Republic, how it was formed, 
when it was formed. A couple of fairly recent things come to mind. When 
we think of less than 100 years ago, women in America could not vote. 
Less than 100 years ago, women did not have the right to vote. But we 
addressed that. We fixed that. We fixed it through amendment XIX in our 
Constitution.
  Up until the mid-1960s, did anyone really believe that an African 
American had any hope or possibility to be a nominee for President of 
the United States, maybe even be President some day? The Voting Rights 
Act and the Civil Rights Act of the midsixties changed that. We know 
the system can work.
  These are defining times. We are living through a global 
reorientation. One of the great responsibilities this body

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will have, the next President will have, we all will have, is to 
reintroduce America to the world. The world does not know who we are. 
Part of that is our fault. Part of that is not our fault. There are 6.5 
billion people, and 40 percent of those 6.5 billion are under the age 
of 19 years old. Most people alive today were not alive at the end of 
World War II. This can be done. It must be done. America is a great 
country because we are a good people.
  I wish to take my last minute in my comments today to read from a 
poem I have distributed to friends and staff for 30 years. I do not 
know the author of this poem, and I never have. I never found out who 
the author of this poem is. I have put it on a piece of glass and have 
distributed hundreds and hundreds of copies to people I have worked 
with over the years in different things I have done.
  I end my remarks, Mr. President, this way this afternoon, by reciting 
this poem entitled ``The Man in the Glass'' because it reflects on each 
of us but, most poignantly, it reflects on each of us who has 
responsibility to serve the public and be accountable and honest:

     When you get what you want in your struggle for self
     And the world makes you king for a day,
     Just go to the mirror and look at yourself
     And see what that man has to say.

     For it isn't your father or mother or wife
     Whose judgment upon you must pass.
     The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
     Is the one staring back from the glass.

     You may be like Jack Horner and chisel a plum
     And think you're a wonderful guy.
     But the man in the glass says you're only a bum
     If you can't look him straight in the eye.

     He's the fellow to please--never mind all the rest,
     For he's with you clear to the end.
     And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test
     If the man in the glass is your friend.

     You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years
     And get pats on the back as you pass.
     But your final reward will be heartache and tears
     If you've cheated the man in the glass.

  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Whitehouse). The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. NELSON of Nebraska. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that 
the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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