    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 16 (Monday, April 25, 1994)]
    [Pages 862-865]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    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.
        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]

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        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 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 only 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 problems 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
    com-

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    mon 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 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

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    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. A tape was not available for
    verification of the content of these remarks.