Political Quotes

“Mr. President, first, let me extend my sympathy to my colleague, Jay Rockefeller from West Virginia, son-in-law of the late Senator Chuck Percy, and, of course, his wife, Senator Percy's daughter, Sharon. They are great friends, and I know this loss, though they all found it inevitable, still brings pain to their lives. I hope the reflections of so many people in the greatness of Chuck Percy and his contribution to Illinois and to America will help to, in some ways, alleviate the pain they are going through. I join my colleague, Senator Kirk, today in paying tribute to our fallen colleague and friend, Senator Charles Percy, who died on Saturday. He served Illinois and our Nation for 18 years here in the Senate. Although he ran against the two men who were my greatest political inspirations--Senator Paul Douglas and Senator Paul Simon--I always regarded Senator Percy as a friend and as an honest and honorable representative of our State of Illinois. It is a little known fact about Chuck Percy that he was nearsighted in one eye and farsighted in the other. That unusual vision was a good metaphor for his politics as well. He described himself as ``fervently moderate.'' A progressive Republican, he said he was ``a conservative on money issues but a liberal on people issues.'' He used the word ``liberal'' in the days when you could get away with it. Charles Harting Percy was born in 1919 in Pensacola, FL. His family moved to Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood when he was a baby.…”