John Sarbanes: “I have been here three decades and there is no one during that time who has spoken more eloquently, more perceptively…”

“I have been here three decades and there is no one during that time who has spoken more eloquently, more perceptively about our Constitution and the role of the Senate within the Constitution, who has sought to strengthen the Senate as an institution and to have it play its role in the checks and balances arrangements which our Founding Fathers established in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. Senator Byrd again and again has called us to a higher standard. He has urged us over and over to do the right thing, to understand what our roles are as Senators, and, as he said, I know of no issue, certainly in recent times, where he has more pointedly expressed our role than when we considered the issue of giving the President authority to go to war in Iraq. It was Senator Byrd who sounded a clarion call that was heard all across the country, as he raised the basic questions that needed to be raised with respect to an issue of such gravity and significance.”