[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book I)]
[April 20, 1994]
[Pages 737-740]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Democratic Congressional Dinner
April 20, 1994

    Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, for that enthusiastic introduction 
and for your equally enthusiastic leadership of the House. Senator 
Mitchell, Congressman Gephardt, Senator Graham and Congressman Fazio, 
Senator Rockefeller, Congressman Torricelli, to the host committee, and 
especially to our chair, Hugh Westbrook, all of you who have made so 
many sacrifices for the Democratic Party and for our country.
    The Vice President and I are glad to be here tonight to see so many 
old friends; to know that what we have done together has made you 
willing to continue to work to keep our majority so that we can continue 
to work for you. And I have to tell you that I'm very proud--very, very 
proud--of all the Democratic Members of Congress who have worked with us 
and without whom we could not have done anything over the last 15 months 
to deal with the profound problems this country faces.

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    In that context, I am praying for the large-mindedness to forgive 
George Mitchell for retiring. I have found the silver lining in that 
cloud. I finally figured out what George had in mind, you know, when he 
said at least he was going to give his whole heart and soul to passing 
health care. I didn't have it figured out until he announced today his 
engagement to the director of a sports marketing firm. [Laughter] This 
is the method behind his madness. He is always methodical.
    What he's got in mind for the rest of the year is a bunch of 
commercials with George and Larry Byrd and Michael Jordan. [Laugher] And 
they'll be at the top of a building or in space somewhere, and he'll 
say, ``Here's how we're going to pass health care.'' He'll say, ``Off 
the Finance Committee, over the Ways and Means Committee, through the 
Conference Committee, to the President, nothing but net.'' [Laughter]
    I will say Senator Mitchell has caused me some minor inconvenience, 
not at all of his own doing, but because of developments in the last 24 
to 36 hours when he decided he did not want to be on the Supreme Court. 
I had to go back to the drawing board. Well, you know, it's a real pain 
to get anybody confirmed in the Senate today. Have you noticed that? 
[Laughter] I mean, it's gotten to the point where I don't even want to 
go to dinner with anybody that can get confirmed in the Senate. 
[Laughter]
    Anyway, we did, because this is the second time this has happened, 
we had a lot of sterling candidates for the Supreme Court whom we 
thought we had thoroughly vetted. And now, lo and behold, I've got to go 
back to every one of them and ask them, boxers or briefs? [Laughter] Can 
you believe the indignities you have to endure if you're President these 
days? [Laughter] James Carville said the other day that the President 
ought to be accountable, but he shouldn't become America's pinata. 
[Laughter]
    I want to say a special word of tribute and appreciation to Tip 
O'Neill and to Millie and to the O'Neill family. I loved that film. And 
I loved being reminded that in the midst of all the things that we 
sometimes get diverted by in this town, engagement in politics can serve 
a deeper purpose and it must. I am so proud of the life that Tip O'Neill 
lived and the legacy he left.
    And I guess what I want to say to you tonight--I've given a lot of 
thought to it; I don't have to recount what we've done; others have done 
that--is to ask you to remember what was in that film. I have often 
wondered what I would think about 5 minutes before I left this old Earth 
if I had 5 minutes' notice. I think that I would think about the people 
that I loved, my family and my friends, the people with whom I shared 
friendship, the exhilarating things in which I was involved, and maybe 
what the flowers looked and smelled like in the springtime. And that 
most of the things that we obsess about for most of our lives would just 
vanish away if we all had 5 minutes' notice.
    So the trick is always to live as if we were on 5 minutes' notice. I 
say that because you and I know that this election season, if history is 
any guide, will be a challenging one for us. We know that because we 
have more seats up than the other party. We know that because, 
historically, the President's party loses some ground at midterm. We 
know that because we have so many people who are retiring after 
justifiable, laborious service.
    But I know something else: I know that for 15 months, we have worked 
hard to say yes to America and that by and large, vast majorities of the 
other party, at every turn in the road, have focused on how to keep 
saying no. I know that we have tried to come to grips with problems that 
were long ignored. I know that I have tried to reach out beyond party 
divisions and invited others in good faith to join us. I know that 
together we have tried to lift up our common efforts, not tear other 
people down, to unite this country and not to divide it.
    You can't blame the American people for being cynical after all 
they've been through and the way it's all portrayed. And you can't blame 
people for expressing their frustrations and their hurts when they still 
haven't felt the updraft that is in this economy. And many of you go on 
to face difficult races in an atmosphere that may seem slightly 
unrealistic and sort of shrouded in a fog, but what I want to say to you 
tonight is to pierce the fog. You must show the conviction that what you 
have done matters to you and will matter to the last day you're on this 
Earth and that you intend to keep on facing these problems and seizing 
these opportunities and what pierces the fog is the record.
    There is a truth here, there is a reality. The deficit is down. We 
are dealing with the prob-


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lems of crime and the problems that working families face and the 
problems of health care and the need for more jobs and all the difficult 
challenges facing America. And we are trying to seize opportunities that 
we had for too long ignored.
    And even in the areas in foreign policy that have taken so much of 
my attention in the last 2 weeks, that have no easy answers, we at least 
are squaring our shoulders to the wheel and trying to honestly face the 
problems facing this country and move it forward.
    And so, we believe the purpose of politics is to unite the American 
people and to move this country forward, to enter the next century with 
this still being the greatest country in the world, to give everybody in 
this country a chance to live up to his or her God-given capacities. And 
we believe that Government has a role in that, that we can't live other 
people's lives for them but neither can we walk away from people's 
problems.
    We offer a partnership in America. We offer opportunity; we insist 
on responsibility. But we know that what binds us together is more than 
a bunch of words; it's a shared existence, a shared set of values, and a 
common future whether we all like it or not. We are going up or down 
together.
    And for 15 months we have begun to push away the fog. We have begun 
together to take on these problems and to move this country forward and 
to give people a sense of possibility again so that politics could be 
more than personal advantage or personal harm. It could be about how to 
lift ourselves up together and to give people chances they don't now 
have and to solve problems that only Government can solve. This must be 
the message of this election year.
    For those of you who have come here to make it possible for the 
campaigns to be staffed and the ads to be run, I say to you, we have a 
record to run on. We have a message to take out there. And we can defy 
the odds because the odds are about statistics and not about the reality 
of 1994.
    The reality of 1994 is that we are fulfilling the promise of that 
remarkable campaign in 1992. And eventually, in race after race, in 
district after district, in State after State, if there is conviction 
and if it's backed up by reality and we keep working this year to build 
on what happened last year, then the people of this country will respond 
whether they are retired to sunny Florida in Senator Graham's State or 
whether they live in Co-op City in Congressman Engel's district or 
whether they're living in one of those beautiful towns in Speaker 
Foley's wonderful district in Washington or someplace in between, the 
truth will prevail if we believe it, if we have conviction, and if we 
fight not for ourselves but for some higher purpose.
    It is no accident, my fellow Americans, that in the face of the 
march of progress you have seen in these last 15 months, there has been 
an intensified atmosphere of highly personal attacks and negative, 
often, histrionics. It is because we are on to something. And good 
things are happening, and we are moving forward.
    But we focus on those things at our peril. The American people have 
a lot of sense and an enormous capacity for discounts, and they know 
politics for what it is. And yes, they make a mistake every now and 
then, but more than half the time on more than half the issues for over 
200 years now, they have been right. And that's why we're all sitting 
here tonight, because our system has worked.
    Tip O'Neill once said, if you take care of the people, that'll take 
care of the next election. Well, we're taking care of the people, and 
we've got to make sure they know what we're doing, and we've got to make 
sure that we know that we will be rewarded.
    So, I say to you, what's the prescription for '94? People like you 
helping the Members of Congress to get their message out, Members of 
Congress full of conviction and courage, and a record in Congress in '94 
that equals the one in '93 with a crime bill, with health care reform, 
with the education reforms, with the training reforms, with a message 
that says, we're going to face our problems and seize our opportunities.
    I want you to feel good about this year. So what if it's a higher 
hill to climb. The reason we've got more folks up is because we've got 
more folks in. And if we didn't have more folks in, we wouldn't be doing 
what we're doing. And we have to keep it that way.
    I used to tell people in the campaign of 1992 that I was a Democrat 
by heritage, instinct, and conviction. And even though I get mad from 
time to time at things that happen, I never thought about leaving. I 
always felt that when I was home serving in State government and for a 
dozen years as my State's Governor--but

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I'll tell you something, after spending 15 months here, I know it's true 
more deeply, more profoundly than I could have ever imagined before I 
showed up. I want you, every one of you, to leave this room tonight and 
say,``We're not going to have to run against the other guys. We're going 
to defend ourselves, but we're going to run on our record and for the 
people of the United States, and we are going to lift this debate in 
1994. We will not let it be torn down. We will not let the fog of 
inaccuracy and negativism embrace the American people. In every 
district, in every State, we will be proud of what we have done. We will 
assert it with conviction.'' And when it's all over, when people vote in 
November, they will look and say, ``We want those people to stay in 
because they're interested in us, not themselves. They're fighting for 
us, and they're making a difference. And it's good for America, and it's 
good for my children. It's good for the grandchildren,'' like that 
wonderful little girl that Tip O'Neill held up.
    Don't forget what this is about, folks. And imagine what you want to 
be remembered for because you were in politics if you get your 5 
minutes' notice. If we take that 5 minutes' notice to the American 
people in 1994, we will have a thunderous victory.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 9:32 p.m. at the Washington Hilton Hotel. 
In his remarks, he referred to Hugh Westbrook, director of finance, 
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.