Joe Biden: “I rise this morning to speak not to an issue but to speak to a man--about a man. Mr. President, I rise this morning on…”

“I rise this morning to speak not to an issue but to speak to a man--about a man. Mr. President, I rise this morning on the floor of the Senate to perform a task that I am anxious to perform but, at the same time, reluctant to perform. I have been in the Senate now for 24 years. I have had the opportunity in those 24 years to serve with some very famous, significant political figures in modern American history. When I arrived here in 1972, Richard Nixon was President. The Senate was markedly different in terms of its makeup and membership, so much so that I now find myself--I was No. 100 in seniority--I now find myself somewhere in the low teens in seniority, and finding only a half a dozen or so Democrats who have been here longer than I have. The reason I bother to mention that is I have had an opportunity to meet and work with and become friends with some truly great and famous Members of the U.S. Senate. The loss--in some cases by death, such as in the case of Hubert Humphrey and Dewey Bartlett and others; in some cases as a consequence of having lost an election, in the case of people like Frank Church and other great leaders such as Jacob Javits; the loss in some cases on the part of a Senator deciding he did not wish to run again, like Senator Mansfield and others--has impacted on the Senate and has impacted on the country.”