Chris Dodd: “let me first of all commend both of our colleagues from New York, Senators Schumer and Clinton, for their very eloquent…”

“let me first of all commend both of our colleagues from New York, Senators Schumer and Clinton, for their very eloquent remarks about our former colleague and dear friend, Pat Moynihan. I know not only the Moynihan family but the people of New York and others around this great country who have had the privilege of knowing and spending time with Pat Moynihan deeply appreciate their comments and their words. I join in expressing my deep sense of loss of a towering figure of American life, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, whom we all know passed away yesterday. My heart certainly goes out to Senator Moynihan's family at this most difficult time, his remarkable wife Liz and their three children, Timothy, Maura, and John, as well as the entire Moynihan family. All of us, every single American, even those who may never have heard his name or are unaware of his contribution, lost a member of the family in a sense with the death of Pat Moynihan. That is because for more than half a century, Pat Moynihan served the American people as a soldier, a teacher, as an author, an assistant to four American Presidents, an Ambassador to India and the United Nations and, of course, a Member of this Chamber for 24 years, from 1976 to the year 2000. Pat Moynihan, to those of us who knew him so well, was an intellectual giant who never lost sight of what makes America tick, in its most fundamental way our nation's people and our nation's families.”