    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
    [November 12, 1997]
    [Pages 1541-1542]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1541]]

    Remarks at a Memorial Service for Representative Walter H. Capps
    November 12, 1997

        Laura, the staff and friends and admirers of Walter Capps; the first
    time I met Walter, he was not a Congressman. As a matter of fact, he was
    a man who had run for and been defeated for Congress. I knew he must be
    a special man because Laura was working for us, just next to my office,
    and I knew he had to have been a special father.
        So I met this guy, and I thought, this man is entirely too nice to
    be in Congress anyway. [Laughter] Besides that, he speaks in complete
    sentences and paragraphs. [Laughter] He would never get along in
    Washington in the 1990's; he's happy all the time. [Laughter] I don't
    think he has a mean bone in his body. Well, suffice it to say, when he
    ran again, I was elated and even happier when he won.
        For me, the defining image of the 1996 campaign will always be that
    magnificent day at the University of Santa Barbara when we were up on
    the hill and there were 15,000 or more people there, mostly students. It
    was a sunny day looking out on the ocean, and there was Walter Capps on
    the stage with me, beaming. You know, he wasn't exactly an experienced
    campaigner, and he used to joke that I had actually had to grab him and
    teach him how to smile and wave to a crowd from a stage. He was up
    there--he said, ``I never had a crowd like this before. I never had a
    crowd like this before.'' [Laughter] I said, ``Walter, this is easy. You
    just go up, put one arm around me and wave the other arm.'' [Laughter]
    ``It's easy; you can do this.''
        I say this to make a point you have already heard from every
    previous speaker. The things I taught him were superficial things; the
    things that he taught us were deep and enduring things. And he seemed to
    naturally be upbeat, harmonious, uniting. I try to do that, but some
    days it's a real effort for me. I think it came out of the depths of his
    soul. I think he was at ease with the consequences of whatever could
    happen to him. Most people in politics are full of anxiety with the
    consequences of whatever could happen to them.
        He believed in his party, but principles were more important. He
    liked victory, but values were more important. And he knew that the mind
    was a wonderful thing, but the heart was more important.
        I can only tell you that, for me, perhaps the most important thing
    was that whenever I saw him, he made me prouder to be in public service.
    He made me want to stand a little taller. He was always so incredibly
    ingratiating and humble, and he was--``It's such a big thing to be in
    the White House,'' and ``I'm so proud my daughter works for the
    President,'' and all that stuff, you know, but he made me feel better
    being around him.
        He sent a message to young people that public service is a noble
    thing and that people who commit themselves to it can make positive
    changes. He was an instant and consistent rebuke to the cynicism that
    some people try to make their way with in this day and age, especially
    when they talk about the political system. He taught us about our common
    humanity, and he left us all a little better than we would have been.
    And if we remember not only what he said but how he lived, he'll make us
    a lot better than we would have been.
        Hebrews says, ``We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, so let us
    run with patience the race that is before us.'' He had a remarkable way
    of being avid, eager, almost lusty about everything he was trying to
    take in in life, and yet underneath, there was this calm patience. He
    had one thing I wish I could have, that I wish we all could--that has
    already been discussed--and that is, every moment seemed enough and
    self-contained, and he was always there. The lives we live in Washington
    leave us so crammed-headed, half the time we're not there in whatever is
    happening to us. Walter Capps was always there.
        For me, because my daughter is the most important person in the
    world to me and to Hillary, his role as a father meant a lot, and Laura
    is now a part of our family. But the integrity and the constancy that he
    brought to that role is something you could see in every single thing he
    did. So we only had him a little less than a year, and we feel a little
    cheated. But maybe the lesson from God, through Walter, to us is: It
    wasn't me; it was you. And we should be a little more like him every
    day.

    [[Page 1542]]

    That will be his great and enduring gift, not only to us but to the
    United States.
        May God bless his memory and his family.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:39 p.m. at the Cannon House Office
    Building. In his remarks, he referred to Representative Capps' daughter
    Laura, Staff Director for the Office of Speechwriting at the White
    House.