Dale Bumpers: “this is indeed a sad day for me personally and, though Americans may not realize it, it is a sad day for them, too. The…”

“this is indeed a sad day for me personally and, though Americans may not realize it, it is a sad day for them, too. The other morning, I read where former Secretary Cheney said he was not going to run for President and, in a spate of candor customary to Dick Cheney, said the price was ``too high.'' I toyed with a Presidential race one time and came to the same conclusion. I never did say it, though. But the truth of the matter is, public service, which I was taught by my father was the noblest of all callings, has come to demand an almost impossible price. I have no idea what went into Senator Johnston's thinking in arriving at the decision not to seek reelection. I know he is a family man. He is one of the few people I would defer to, maybe slightly, in his devotion to his family over me. So maybe that was it. But I am not here to wonder aloud what all went into his decision. The first time I heard of Bennett Johnston was when he ran for Governor of Louisiana and he was using the same media consultant I had used a year earlier in running for Governor of Arkansas, Deloss Walker. And while Bennett barely lost that election, he was elected handily for the U.S. Senate 2 years later. I might say to the Senator that that was probably the most fortuitous thing that ever happened to him. As a former Governor and Senator, I can tell you it was the most fortuitous thing that ever happened. But Deloss Walker had told me what a good candidate Senator Johnston was.”