Political Quotes

“I rise on the floor to pay tribute to my very good friend and colleague, Senator Jim Talent, who will be leaving the Senate next month. I have known Jim for over 20 years, since he was minority leader in the Missouri House of Representatives. Throughout all these years, when he was in the State legislature and in the House as chairman of the Small Business Committee when I was chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee, I found Jim to be unfailingly a man of honesty, integrity, and hard work. He has been a wonderful friend and colleague. I am going to miss him very much, and many people in Missouri are. We all know that Washington can change a person, but it hasn't changed Jim. Jim still has the same commonsense Missouri values he brought with him to Washington. He still has the same calm, polite demeanor. He still has strong convictions and a work ethic. As I said to our folks back home in Missouri, in an arena of show horses he has been a work horse. I was with him on the night he got the news that he lost the campaign. He was a man of unfailingly good humor and courage. And still, he thanked his Lord, his friends, and graciously accepted his fate. I have a feeling and hope that public service will see much more of Jim Talent somewhere, sometime. And whatever he decides to do in the public or in the private sector, the qualities he has demonstrated to so many of us in the Senate will be one he will carry with him.”