Tom Harkin: “I join with those paying tribute to our esteemed colleague and friend, Claiborne Pell. I do not think there is a…”

“I join with those paying tribute to our esteemed colleague and friend, Claiborne Pell. I do not think there is a stronger argument against term limits than the personage of Claiborne Pell. I know it is fashionable to talk about term limits these days, limits to the amount of time people can spend here. I have always been opposed to that, and I think, looking at the contributions that Claiborne Pell has made to this country and to the Senate over the last 35 years, it is once again a reminder of why the people of the United States ought to have the right to return people to office if they so desire and not to have some artificial kind of time limit put upon service to our country and to this institution. Certainly Claiborne Pell's first 12 years were marked by successes here, but so were his second 12 years and his third 12 years. Much has been said about Claiborne Pell's contributions to education: The National Endowment of the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, so many other things he has sponsored, promoted, pushed through the Congress, got signed into law, which have in so many ways advanced the concept of American civilization.”