On the recordFebruary 3, 2011
I rise today to join with my colleagues in this august Chamber, especially Senators Feinstein, Hatch, and Webb, members of the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission, as we pause to pay tribute to the indelible legacy of one of America's truly great Presidents, Ronald Reagan, who would have turned 100 years old on February 6, 2011. It is indeed fitting that as this month of February is filled with historic birthdays of transformational Presidents like George Washington, who founded our Nation, and Abraham Lincoln, who preserved it, that we honor the President who reignited its spirit, Ronald Reagan. A friend of freedom, a foe of tyranny, and always--always an advocate for America, President Reagan inspired our Nation eloquently and powerfully to recapture and reaffirm our founding ideals of individual freedom, common sense, and limited government. He reminded us with unshakable optimism that America, as the great experiment in self-government, had planted an eternal stake along the timeline of human history as, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, 'the last best hope of Earth.'
