Political Quotes

“last Friday, America lost a good and gracious person, a statesman, and many of us in the Senate lost a personal friend. Senator Daniel Akaka was as kind and decent a man as you would ever meet in life. For 3\1/2\ decades, Danny Akaka served the people of Hawaii in the U.S. Congress with dignity, humility, and deep caring. The Hawaiian concept of ``aloha'' isn't a quality that many think of when they think of politicians. ``Aloha'' means mutual regard and affection. It means extending warmth and caring with no obligation in return, no strings attached. Danny Inouye, that giant of Hawaii and its history, once called Danny Akaka ``a true ambassador of aloha.'' When Danny Akaka announced in 2011 that he would not run for reelection to the Senate, then-Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie said: The words aloha and Akaka are interchangeable. Daniel Akaka is Hawaii. Now, at age 93, Senator Akaka is gone. I first met him in 1983. I was a newly elected Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Then we sat together on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, the two of us next to one another down at the far end of the table. Danny had 6 years' seniority on me. We served together, worked together, laughed together, traveled together, and came to be friends. Here was a man, a great politician, who didn't have a personal ego. Politics was always about someone else, about helping other people. In fact, he went out of his way to avoid the spotlight.…”