Political Quotes

“I am honored to join my colleague, Senator Duckworth, to talk about Ed Smith. It is rare that Senators come to the floor and pay tribute to someone who passes away. It doesn't happen every day. And when we have two Senators from the same State here at the same time doing it, it speaks to the quality of the person that we are talking about. Mr. President, you have been to Chicago, but you may not have toured the whole State of Illinois. It is a different State down south. About 400 miles south of Chicago is a place called Alexander County, and the county seat is Cairo, IL. Now, most students of geography would say: That is ``Cairo.'' Not to people of southern Illinois; it is ``Cairo'' or ``Cairo.'' It has had quite a history. It is at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, so it was really a hotbed of economic activity for a century. It was a large, bustling town and with a lot of river traffic that made it a very successful town. Over time, the economy started to slump. Interstate highways took over for rivers, and Cairo was not quite where it should be. I graduated law school here in Washington in 1969 and went to work for the Lieutenant Governor of our State, Paul Simon. Brandnew lawyer, anxious to be successful and do the right thing, I said to Lieutenant Governor Simon: What do you want me to do? He said: Go to Cairo. Well, that was quite an assignment in those days because Cairo was in big trouble.…”