Dick Lugar: “our colleagues have spoken so well about Paul Coverdell as a gentleman, as a person who was thoughtful and persuasive.…”

“our colleagues have spoken so well about Paul Coverdell as a gentleman, as a person who was thoughtful and persuasive. As Senator Domenici said, he worked the aisles indefatigably with the ideals that he held. First of all, it is fundamental that Paul Coverdell was elected to the Senate. It was a very difficult contest--one not decided on election day, the day of his first election. He was an extraordinarily experienced politician and statesman in the State of Georgia, with remarkable legislative experience as a leader throughout much of his tenure. But those from our party in Georgia have a very difficult time with that, and that was the case for Paul. It was a very close contest. He won graciously, came to the Senate, and had a difficult reelection contest for which he began to prepare early and in which he asked many of us to participate. But he did it all so gracefully, so thoughtfully, so constructively, that we rarely think of Paul Coverdell as a very tough political competitor and someone who was in a difficult arena. It took great courage to make those races to begin with and remarkable tenacity to follow through to success. My own first impressions of Paul Coverdell came during the often commented period in which he served as head of the Peace Corps. Paul Coverdell was in Latin America and various other places where some of us tried to work for democracy in those days.…”