Tom Latham: “First of all, I will say ``thank you'' to Mr. Simpson--a great, great friend--for doing this this evening; to Mr. Nunes…”

“First of all, I will say ``thank you'' to Mr. Simpson--a great, great friend--for doing this this evening; to Mr. Nunes, who is still on the floor here; to Steve King and Dave Loebsack, who were down here. I am not going to sing--we will pass that by--but, again, thank you very, very much for the honor you have bestowed on me and for the kind words here tonight. Madam Speaker, I will just say the thing I will miss most are my good friends here. That part of it really is hard because it becomes an extended family over time--people whom you know, whom you work with, whom you trust on a day-to-day basis. I will miss that. Now, there is a lot of other stuff I won't miss here, but I will miss the personal relationships and friendships. Mr. Simpson mentioned the Speaker. I will just tell you that there is no one who could be a better friend and someone I owe so much to. John and Debbie Boehner, Kathy and I owe them so much. They are great, great friends. We love them, and we will continue that friendship as we will with all of the colleagues here we have come to know and love. Anyone who does this job for any period of time understands you are never going to be successful or accomplish anything without the great work of your staff. I have been blessed both in Iowa and here in Washington with tremendous people who have worked so hard for me, who have committed themselves to the people of Iowa--to the service to them and to this country. All of them are very, very special to me.…”