[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16353]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        THANKING MITCH McCONNELL

  Mr. REID. Mitch, thank you very much for those nice remarks.
  Mr. President, I have heard for years--especially from the press and 
others--how do you get along with Mitch McConnell? It is obvious it is 
not very good.
  It is simple, everybody. He and I understand our relationship. We are 
both lawyers. I have been to court lots of times, over 100 jury trials, 
and when I would go to those trials, I would really fix on my opponent. 
How could he feel that way about an issue? He is wrong on the law, he 
is wrong on the facts, and we are going to take care of this in court.
  Fortunately, I was fairly blessed with my trials; it turned out OK 
most of the time. But Mitch and I understand that is what we do here. 
When the trial was over--I have walked out of a courtroom with Neil 
Galatz or whoever it was--it was over with. It was gone. We were 
friends. We were there, each doing our thing to effect our cause, and 
that is what we do here.
  McConnell and Reid don't need to be hugging out here every day. That 
is not what we do. We are advocates for our cause. I do the very best I 
can; he does the very best he can. And he laid that out just fine a few 
minutes ago.
  So this is not a love session for Reid and McConnell, although I want 
everyone here to know that Mitch McConnell is my friend. He and his 
wonderful wife have been kind and thoughtful to us. I have said that 
before; let me repeat it. When Landra was in that very dreadful 
accident, they were there--letters, flowers. They took care of us. When 
Landra had the devastating breast cancer, they were there. When I hurt 
myself, Mitch called me.
  So everybody go ahead and make up all the stories you want about how 
we hate each other. Go ahead. But we don't. If it makes a better story, 
go ahead and do it, but maybe somebody should write this.
  Thank you very much, Mitch.
  OK, everybody, now my final speech.

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