Dan Coats: “I wish to thank my friend, my long-time friend whom I hate to see leave this body, Senator Lieberman from Connecticut…”

“I wish to thank my friend, my long-time friend whom I hate to see leave this body, Senator Lieberman from Connecticut, for his remarks. I didn't have the opportunity to speak after he gave his farewell remarks. I do wish to say, before I get into the reason I came down here--I am happy to see him here so I can say this--it has been a joy to serve with him over the years. I am in my second life in the Senate, and during my first life we served together on the Armed Services Committee. We did a number of initiatives together on which I was proud to be associated with him, that I believe strengthened our national economy and our security team around the world. We worked on school vouchers for DC and a number of other initiatives affecting the future of our military and other issues that were of importance to us. Most important, from my standpoint, we worked together to bring values that each of us cherish based on our faith. Joe is of the Jewish faith, and I am of the Christian faith. We discovered on a trip to Iraq, just after Desert Storm, that we, in talking to each other, shared our respective faiths and how it affected our lives, how it affected our families, and how it helped us form decisions we make.…”