Bob Dole: “I want to go back 136 years ago this summer. A committee arrived in Springfield, IL--Senator Simon probably knows the…”

“I want to go back 136 years ago this summer. A committee arrived in Springfield, IL--Senator Simon probably knows the story--and it formally notified Abraham Lincoln that the Republican Party had nominated him to run for President. History records that Lincoln's formal reply to the news was just two sentences long. And then as he surveyed the crowd of friends gathered outside his home, as I survey the crowd of friends here in the galleries and on the floor, he said, ``Now I will no longer defer the pleasure of taking each of you by the hand.'' So I guess, as Lincoln said then, 136 years ago, if all of us who are leaving this year--and I am only one, and I know we have the same thoughts and the same emotions--if we can all go out and shake hands with all the people who were responsible for us being here, it would take a long time. You begin with your family. You, obviously, begin with your parents, your brothers, your sisters, and you think about all the support they have provided and all the good things that happened. And you think about the Senate. You think about your family, your remarkable, wonderful wife and daughter, who have seen victories and seen defeats and have put up with, as all our spouses and children do around here, with late hours, not being home on weekends, and all the demands that go with serving in the Senate. So I am very honored to have my wife Elizabeth and my daughter Robin in the gallery today.”