Political Quotes

“we are taking about somebody today who was actually a mentor for me right here in the U.S. Senate--Ted Stevens. I believe it was 33 years ago when I first met him--33 years ago--and I was in the House, and I was coming to the Senate. He was a power in the Senate then. He was a worker. He was involved. He was involved not only in what happened in Alaska, where he was a champion of his own State--and should have been--but also in the world. He wanted to make sure that America had a defense second to nobody; that we were powerful, but we were peaceful. I had the occasion to serve for years and years on the Appropriations Committee and on the Subcommittee on Defense with him. I hadn't been on the committee long, and Senator Byrd was chairman of the committee, and Senator Hatfield from Oregon had been, and he tasked me with a lot of things that probably as a freshman--you know, second-year, third-year guy here--I probably was appalled but pleased--maybe not appalled, but pleased--what he would do. He told me one day: Senator Shelby, you are going to be chairman of this committee. I looked around, and I said: Oh, it will be years. I will never be that. But Ted Stevens was a Senator's Senator. He was involved, as I said, in just about everything in the Senate--the Rules Committee, the Commerce Committee, Appropriations, and Defense. I will never forget his experience, his wise suggestions to me that probably helped me on my way.…”