On the recordNovember 27, 2012
I thank you for yielding. I'm really pleased to step up tonight and say a little bit about my friend, Ralph Hall. Here he is, the oldest Member to cast a vote on this floor. Texas has sent an awful lot of treasure to this place over the years. We've shared resources. We are a State of resources. We shared our resources, we think, pretty graciously with the rest of the country. And when we shared Ralph Hall with this body, we shared one of Texas's treasures. We've talked about Ralph, and most of the stories that have been told I have known and thought about sharing. But the truth is that when I think about Ralph Hall, it's amazing. People that don't really know him in Texas think they know him because they know his reputation. It's been said that a statesman is a person who puts everything above himself and all partisanship aside and tries to do what's right for the country. I've watched Ralph as a Democrat, I've watched him as a Republican, and that's what he does. A national treasure is something they bury in the ground, so Ralph doesn't like to talk about that, but what he does like to talk about is the fact that we all need to be nice to each other. And Ralph Hall is like what we Texans define as a Texan. And the first definition every Texan will give is a man that'll look you straight in the face, make a deal with you, look him in the eye, he gives you his word, and you can count on it. That's the definition we Texans cherish.…
