Political Quotes

“I just want to add my words to what my other colleagues have said about someone I am going to miss dearly. Senator Mark Begich and I worked together on many things. When I passed the reins from the steering and outreach committee and suggested to our leader that he should seriously consider Senator Begich for that responsibility, he made us all proud as part of the leadership in presenting a very important perspective every single day. I have frequently referenced an energy committee trip I took to Alaska with Senator Begich where--I thought Michigan was big. Michigan is big. But we not only had to travel a long way to get to Alaska, once we were in Alaska we had to travel a long way from one end to another. I remember I ran into a number of people from Michigan because in our Upper Peninsula we also have a lot of snow, and we have a lot of people who were working there. But everywhere we went--and we traveled to Native American villages. We flew to Barrow. We were in every part of the State. Some areas you could only get into by helicopter. We would get there--we went to a Native village that needed a new post office. Senator Begich took me out. We had boots on because there was water coming up. We looked at this little, tiny post office that was maybe a little bigger than a closet, not much. We came out. The whole community was there to urge us to support this post office.…”