On the recordJanuary 25, 1994
I rise today to remember another Speaker, and a dear friend, Tip O'Neill. I know I express what is in so many of our hearts when I say that not one person who served with Tip was untouched by his warmth, his humor, and his kindness. Tip O'Neill was a special kind of public servant. He took tremendous joy in the game of politics. But he respected--no, he revered--the institutions of our democratically elected, representative government. Rough and tumble as this House can be at times--and rough and tumble as Tip himself could play--Tip never forgot that this is the people's House. Our business is the public's business; our mission the public good. Tip knew in his bones that was that our U.S. Government was of the people, by the people, and for the people. And people weren't some abstraction. Economic statistics weren't people. Long-term projections weren't people. Pie charts and bar charts and flow charts weren't people. People were the men and women he met everyday--whether he met them in the marble Halls of the Congress or on the streets and sidewalks of Cambridge. His mission was to do the best he could for them, and to make sure that Government existed to serve them and their needs. Tip's kindness was legendary. I myself arrived in Washington after a special election. I was the single-most junior Member. But Tip made it his business not only to welcome me, but to get to know me. Because Tip loved people, he listened to them.
