Douglas Alexander: “we will miss Craig Thomas. Craig Thomas would want it to be said that he was a conservative. He enjoyed expressing…”

“we will miss Craig Thomas. Craig Thomas would want it to be said that he was a conservative. He enjoyed expressing conservative views on this floor. He enjoyed expressing conservative views in our Energy Committee on which we served together, and the Senator from Louisiana and I served with Senator Thomas. He kept his feet firmly planted on the ground in Wyoming from which his conservatism came. He obviously well represented the people of Wyoming because he barely noticed there was an election last year. When Craig Thomas ran, he was elected by an overwhelming margin. Craig Thomas was a conservationist. He was chairman of the National Parks Subcommittee during the time I served on the Energy Committee, and he enjoyed that very much. I am not a bit surprised because he took great pride in the fact that Yellowstone, a great, premier park--I can say that even though we have the Great Smokies in Tennessee--but Yellowstone, which has such a special place in the hearts of all Americans, Craig Thomas took special pride in his jurisdiction of that responsibility. He was honored by the National Parks Association a couple of years ago. Craig Thomas was awarded the singular honor of the National Parks Association for his stewardship of our national parks. Craig Thomas was no-nonsense. That came from several places, I suspect. One was, as the Senator from Nebraska noted, he was a marine. One was that he was a cowboy, a real cowboy.…”