Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding, and I thank my colleague across the aisle for his support of this legislation. I also thank all of my colleagues in the Illinois delegation for cosponsoring this legislation to name a post office for Abner J. Mikva. Ab, as my colleague mentioned, is one of the few Americans to hold the distinction of serving in all three branches of the Federal Government. When Abner Mikva was a young man, he went to the office of a Chicago ward committeeman and asked to volunteer. His offer was rebuffed with the remark: ``We don't want nobody nobody sent.'' Unswayed, Abner Mikva devoted his life to public service and to politics. Abner Mikva was born in 1926 in Milwaukee. He enrolled in the Army Air Corps in 1944 and served as a navigator in the Army Air Corps during World War II. In 1951, he received a law degree from the University of Chicago and, after graduation, served as a clerk to Associate Justice Sherman Minton on the Supreme Court. In 1956, Abner Mikva was elected to the Illinois General Assembly, where he served for five consecutive terms. He was then elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1968, where he represented the south side, Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. That is Barack Obama's neighborhood. After redistricting in 1971, Abner Mikva moved to Evanston. In 1974, he won the election to represent Illinois' 10th Congressional District, which was based, at that time, in Evanston, my hometown.…”