Political Quotes

“Mr. President, my wife ran into one of our old colleagues the other day, a guy named Ted Kaufman. He was the interim Senator who succeeded Joe Biden and held down that slot for 2 years until Senator Chris Coons was elected on his own, not that long ago. One of the things I loved about Ted was, every month he would come to the floor and he would talk about a different Federal employee. Sometimes I heard our colleagues or would hear other people talk about Federal employees or State or local employees as nameless, faceless bureaucrats in a derisive way, uncomplimentary and, I expect, dispiriting. The folks who serve in the Federal Government or State and local government do so usually not because it pays a lot of money or because they get huge bouquets and a lot of credit but because they want to do something constructive with their lives. Ted used to do that every month when he would come to the floor. This is like a shout-out to him because I heard about a fellow in Delaware who decided to step down after a great career of public service and I want to take a few minutes, if I could, to talk about him. The person I have in mind today is the fellow who is stepping down as the director of our Delaware Division of Parks and Recreation. His name is Charles A. Salkin. We call him Chazz. He was appointed the director of the division a couple of months before I became Governor. He was appointed on June 1, 1992.…”