Political Quotes

“I rise today as the dean of the Democratic women to salute a great and grand lady, a daughter of Maine, Senator Margaret Chase Smith. Growing up as a young girl, there were very few role models that I or women of my generation had for women participating in politics. Certainly, there had been Eleanor Roosevelt who served as the First Lady of the United States of America. But during the fifties, as a high school girl, I admired two great women--Clare Boothe Luce, who was a Congresswoman, and also Margaret Chase Smith from Maine. In those days, we did not have words like 'role models,' but they used terms like 'examples,' about how women could retain their femininity and dignity and yet participate in the dynamic world of politics. Until 1992, only 17 women had served in the U.S. Senate. Only five of those women had been elected in their own right and there was one who served only 1 day, but that was not Senator Margaret Chase Smith. For four distinguished terms, she served in the U.S. Senate and was a woman of many firsts and many accomplishments.”