Political Quotes

“Thank you, Mr. Roe, for yielding. I thank you and I thank our colleague, Congresswoman Christensen, for taking this Special Order today so that we can sing the praises of a great man, our colleague, dear friend, precious person, Donald Payne. I waited. I said I wanted to go after Mr. Cleaver because I didn't know how I was going to even have the strength to come to the floor because this is a personal as well as official loss to many of us here. And he is always a source of strength to us, putting in perspective the fragility of life and the value that we must place on the contribution of all of our colleagues, especially when we are blessed with the life, service, and leadership of someone like Donald Payne. There are very few people that you can say ``someone like Donald Payne,'' because he was exceptional and unique. When the distinguished Mr. Cleaver and Reverend Cleaver says that we have to fill in where and take his mantle, that would be almost impossible to do because, over a lifetime, in public service, and a long time in the Congress of the United States, Donald Payne gained standing on issues that takes years to do. But he did teach us along the way. He gave us guidance on what paths to follow, what clues to recognize, and doing the right thing, whether it was in the continent of Asia, Africa, or Latin America, wherever it was, and in our own country. I had the privilege of traveling with Donald Payne when we were going to Darfur. He didn't want to go to the Sudan.…”