Ed Markey: “in 1972 I was a young man in my last year at Boston College Law School, and I decided to run for State representative. I…”

“in 1972 I was a young man in my last year at Boston College Law School, and I decided to run for State representative. I had a cousin who worked at NASA, an older cousin, the smart one, the physicist. He said: Well, there is a young man in Delaware who is running for the Senate. So what is his name? Joe Biden. From that moment on, I was following the career of this Irishman, this latter-day descendent of Hubert Humphrey, a happy warrior, the man who stands up for the common man and woman in our country. In 1972 you had this great campaign team led by John Marttila--the great John--who captured your spirit, your soul, what you represented now in this half century of American politics. In 1976, when I ran for Congress, just 4 years later--the same as you, age 29--saying ``I think I can run,'' I walked into the office of this man, John Marttila, in Boston, and it looked like a museum to Joe Biden with all the Joe Biden literature and messages on his wall. So from that moment on, from John Marttila, through Larry Rasky, through Ron Klain--through all of these people who worked for me and worked for you, I have been privileged to be able to chronicle your journey of work and inspiration for our country. I think it is just perfect that you are the commander in chief of this rocket ship to the Moon to find the cure for cancer because that is a mission that has the right man who is going to be leading it.…”