John Kerry: “all of us who work here in the Senate and who are privileged to serve as Senators know on a personal level that we are…”

“all of us who work here in the Senate and who are privileged to serve as Senators know on a personal level that we are always only as good as our staff and staff work that we are privileged to have from them. I think every Senator is enormously grateful for the hours all of our staffs invest to help us do our work. Oftentimes, that means missing weekends, deferring, delaying, or plain canceling vacations, or working away on a beautiful Saturday morning when other people are out and about, and I am sure the best of them would readily admit they would rather be spending their time somewhere other than perhaps the Russell Senate Office Building. That is why today I mark a very bittersweet transition on my team because tomorrow is Kathy Kerrigan's last day on my Senate staff. After having been confirmed at the end of the last work period, she is leaving the Senate to serve as a judge on the U.S. Tax Court, and that is the capstone in an already distinguished life spent in public service. As proud as I am to see her serve on the Tax Court, it is really difficult to imagine my office without her. She has had the title of ``tax counsel,'' but she really was a lot more than that. The chairman of the Finance Committee, Max Baucus, and my colleague from Massachusetts in the House, Kathy's old boss, Richie Neal, all know better than anyone just how much--on almost every single issue in the Congress, it always somehow comes to be a tax issue, a Finance Committee issue.…”