Mark Kirk: “we meet here today to commemorate the service to the United States of our colleague Henry Hyde of Illinois. Henry Hyde…”

“we meet here today to commemorate the service to the United States of our colleague Henry Hyde of Illinois. Henry Hyde, from our Sixth Congressional District, currently is retiring as the chairman of the House International Relations Committee and has become one of the most intellectual and respected Members of the House. Henry comes from Chicago Earth. Raised as a Catholic and a Democrat, he was an all-city basketball center when he went off to college in Georgetown and then enlisted in the Navy. Henry Hyde served our country in the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946, serving in the Lingayen Gulf and then the Reserves from 1946 to 1968, finally retiring from the Navy as a commander. After the war, he finished college and law school and practiced law in Chicago and in 1958 switched parties, convinced that Republicans were in line with his anti-communist beliefs. He ran for the House in 1962 and lost by a six-point margin. He then ran for the Illinois House in 1966. He served as the majority leader between 1971 and 1972. He ran for Speaker of the Illinois House, but didn't make it after a narrow battle. Henry was elected to the Congress in 1974, after originally planning to run as president of the Cook County Board until Congressman Harold Collier told Henry that he was not going to run for Congress again. Hyde's first campaign for Congress was against the Cook County State's Attorney, Edward Hanrahan, and in that race Henry won by a victory of 53 percent.”