Bill Bennett: “I had not realized when I came down to the floor that this was going to turn into a history class. But I have a little…”

“I had not realized when I came down to the floor that this was going to turn into a history class. But I have a little history to add to it myself, and I hope that it is appropriate. During our conference today, we talked about a previous situation where the Senate was close to this circumstance. The Senator from Oklahoma, Mr. Nickles, and I had an exchange about the facts in that situation. He had it different than I had it. So naturally, under those circumstances, you go check it out. I found out we were both right. So I would like to recite that to perhaps give us a historical setting of where we are. I have only served in this body for 8 years. But as I have indicated on the floor on other occasions, as a teenager I sat in the family gallery while my father served here. And this will perhaps shock everybody, but that was before Strom Thurmond was sworn in. I was in the Senate Chamber before Strom Thurmond was, if you can believe that. And it is true. The Republicans had just won the historic election of 1952. Dwight Eisenhower was the President. The Republicans won the Senate by the narrowest of margins, 49/47. Then, very quickly, Robert Taft was the majority leader. I still have memories, sitting in the family gallery, of watching Robert Taft--a man whose face is now in the lobby as one of the five greatest Senators in American history--prowling around in the back of this Chamber.”