Bill Clinton: “Thank you very much. Thank you. Senator and Mrs. Byrd, Senator Rockefeller, Congressmen Mollohan, Rahall, and Wise, and…”

“Thank you very much. Thank you. Senator and Mrs. Byrd, Senator Rockefeller, Congressmen Mollohan, Rahall, and Wise, and Governor Caperton, and friends, I am glad to be here with all you folks from West Virginia, a small State with a lot of mountains. I identify with it. I'm mostly glad to be here to speak for Senator Byrd tonight. You know, one of the first things I did on coming to Washington as President was to go by Senator Byrd's office and pay a visit. And on that visit, he gave me a copy of his ``History of the Senate,'' which I actually proceeded to read, fearing he would one day give me an examination on it. [Laughter] Now, in this book, among other things, he has a very moving autobiography in which he expresses his respect for Senator Richard Russell and for Senator John Stennis because of the advice and kindness that they gave to him. I feel the same way; I've learned a lot from Senator Byrd. He's always been unfailingly kind, and he's given me a lot of information I've needed and a lot of wise counsel. Senator Byrd also expresses in this book his friendship for the late President Johnson, and he describes his relationship with President Johnson. And I can identify with that, too. There's a particularly moving part of this autobiography where he describes how he talked L.B.J. into appointing a Federal judge he didn't really want to appoint, but Senator Byrd did. And then he turned around and voted against President Johnson on the next major issue in the Senate.…”