[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Page 24757]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       THANKING MEMBERS AND STAFF

  Mr. REID. Madam President, I will be very quick.
  Madam President, I apologize that I did not say something a minute 
ago. We have had a difficult Congress. We have had the staff who are so 
valiant, so good, who always make us look as good as we can look. 
Sometimes that is not very good. However good we look, it is because of 
the great staff we have.
  We have been through 95 filibusters this Congress. We have had many 
serious issues. Our country is in an economic meltdown. We had a series 
of important votes here. It seemed to never end. But always our staff 
is here--always. The Democratic staff on this side of the aisle, the 
Republican staff on the other side of the aisle, they are all very 
professional; the Parliamentarians, these wonderful pages, the court 
reporters. And, of course, the Capitol Police, these people--some of 
whom are in uniform, some not--are here to protect us as well as all 
the staff.
  So I want everyone to know, the four of you seated in front of the 
Presiding Officer, how much I appreciate the work you do. You are all 
very patient. You take abuse a lot of times that you should not because 
a lot of times we are busy and forget that we also have to be nice to 
everyone. If I have offended any of you over the past couple years, it 
certainly was not intentional.
  I am so grateful that my Democratic colleagues allow me to serve in 
the capacity I do, as amateurish as I am on occasion, but it is not 
because I am not trying. I have the greatest affection for every one of 
my Democratic Senators. They are always so good to me and work so hard.
  I look forward to the next year. We need a productive year. Our 
country is in big trouble. We have so many things happening to us, 
individuals, that it does not matter where you look in America today, 
there is very little good news economically. And what happened today is 
not going to help that. But I talked about that before.
  So I appreciate all that everyone does, including the Sergeant at 
Arms, the Secretary. They do such good work. We have all the committee 
chairs who work so hard, subcommittee chairs. I have been fighting for 
some words to express myself how appreciative I am. I am not 
forthcoming of them, so I will say thank you all very much for what you 
do for us and, of course, the country.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California is recognized.

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