Political Quotes

“the name ``John Edward Porter'' may not be well known to many people now, but there was a time when he had a special impact on America. I was proud to call him a colleague and my friend. John Porter was a Congressman from Illinois who served at the same time I was a Member of the House. He did some remarkable things in his life. In the famous 10th District, he was a real leader on many issues. He represented that district in Chicago's northern suburbs from 1980 until the year 2001 and for most of the time we served together in the House. I admired him. We always had a good, positive working relationship although we were of different political faiths. He was a leader and a voice for principled, bipartisan cooperation within our Illinois congressional delegation. John Porter passed away last Friday. He was raised in a family where public service was a way of life. He took it to heart. He served in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1958 to 1964 and as an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice during the Kennedy administration. He was elected to the House in 1980 when his predecessor, Abner Mikva, resigned to become a Federal judge. The two men were different in political faith, but in many regards, they were the same. Ab Mikva, you see, was a legendary liberal Democrat, the son of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine who relied on welfare to survive the Great Depression. John Porter was a fiscally conservative Republican whose father was a judge.…”