Connie Mack: “I, like my colleagues, have come to the floor of the Senate today to express my fond feelings for Senator Thurmond, the…”

“I, like my colleagues, have come to the floor of the Senate today to express my fond feelings for Senator Thurmond, the Senator from South Carolina. As he is fond of saying about so many of us that he campaigns for, he is a man of character. He is a man of capacity. And I would add that he truly is a man who cares about his fellow man. Senator Stevens said a moment ago that Senator Thurmond is someone we can all learn from. I can tell you as a fellow who was running, campaigning for the Senate in 1988, Senator Thurmond volunteered to come to Florida to campaign for me. One of the things he said prior to making that commitment was that 'if I come, I want to be busy. I do not want to come down there for just one or two events. I want to come down there, I want to be busy.' We picked him up at about 5:30 in the morning and we finished that day about 10 o'clock at night. We traveled from Jacksonville, FL, down through the center part of the State, to Lakeland and Tampa, and then an event close to Winter Haven that evening, never missing a beat.”