Cord Byrd: “the motto of the great State of Oklahoma is ``Labor Conquers All.'' How perfect this is for the senior Senator from…”

“the motto of the great State of Oklahoma is ``Labor Conquers All.'' How perfect this is for the senior Senator from Oklahoma, Senator Don Nickles, who has accomplished so much, and gone so far because of his willingness to work. As a young man, after the death of his father, Don Nickles worked his way through college as a janitor making minimum wage. After graduation, he returned to his home town of Ponca City to help run the family business, the Nickles Machine Corporation, of which he became vice president, and then general manager. In 1978, he was elected to the Oklahoma State Senate. Two years later, in 1980, he was elected to the U.S. Senate as part of the ``Reagan Revolution.'' When he took office in 1981, he was just 31 years of age, the youngest Senator in the 97th Congress. Seventeen years later, in 1998, he became the only Oklahoma Republican ever elected to a fourth term in the U.S. Senate. During his 24 years in the Senate, for better and for worse, Senator Nickles has remained consistently true to his basic conservative principles. Congress Daily has justly referred to him as, ``the keeper of the conservative flame.'' Being true to his conservative principles has sometimes led him into taking some lonely stands. And his unflinching commitment to his conservative principles have led him to take positions that have angered constituents of his own State. His principles have even led him into positions on issues that have annoyed me.…”