Barbara Mikulski: “I, too, want to join in the chorus of colleagues by thanking Senator Sarbanes for all he has meant to Maryland, all he…”

“I, too, want to join in the chorus of colleagues by thanking Senator Sarbanes for all he has meant to Maryland, all he has meant to the Senate and all he has meant to the country and all that he has meant to me. I knew Senator Sarbanes 20 years ago, but I knew Paul Sarbanes long before that. I knew him when he was a young lawyer starting out to run for the House of Delegates. I was also, at that time, a young social worker. We were working to stop a highway in the neighborhood. We were the young reformers. Baltimore was dominated by political bosses, by the political machine. And Paul Sarbanes was the first one to buck the machine, to kind of go directly door-to-door to represent the people. Baltimore has not seen for years someone who would actually go out and knock on doors asking people for their vote, bypass the existing establishment and empower the people. Senator Sarbanes won that House of Delegates seat and did a great job. Then he had a hard-fought, again, door-to-door battle--bucking the big boys and big bucks, door-to-door going right through, going directly to the people who brought him to the House--and In 1976, that wonderful Washington centennial year, we in Baltimore, the home of the Star Spangled Banner, celebrated by sending Paul Sarbanes to the Senate. And, by the way, that young social worker went to the House of Representatives. Senator Sarbanes and I have been side by side for those years.…”