Political Quotes

“I do want to take a moment to acknowledge and honor the passing of former President Richard M. Nixon. It has been stated in many of the television commentaries that he was one of the more complex figures in American politics over the last 40 years. I think historians will recognize him as a very perceptive statesman of the type we have not seen in many, many years. He certainly had his share of triumphs and failures. But his legacy will be one, I think, of vision at both the national and international scale. While he may have experienced shortsightedness when it came to events surrounding Watergate, he showed tremendous vision in foreign policy. He was a friend of my State of Alaska. He visited Alaska in 1960 and 1966 and again in 1971. Alaska's current Governor, Walter Hickel, was appointed Secretary of the Interior by the late President Nixon. Nixon was also special to Alaska because he pushed the Eisenhower administration into signing the Alaska Statehood Act and attended the signing ceremonies. During President Nixon's reign, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was signed into law, and in a tie vote broken by Vice President Spiro Agnew legislation was passed establishing the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. So it was no surprise that he carried the State in the election of 1968 and again in 1972. Flags are properly lowered to half-mast today in our Nation's Capitol and throughout our United States to pay respect to his passing.”