Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today I rise to pay tribute to my longtime Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee staff director and dear friend Joe Schultz, who will soon be taking on a new challenge after more than 15 years of service in the U.S. Senate. Now, the first thing I have to say about Joe, just to get it out of the way, is that he is a proud Ohio native and a graduate of the Ohio State University, which is an immediate challenge for anyone from Michigan, whether you are a University of Michigan grad or, as I am, a Michigan State University grad. In fact, his first job in the Senate was working for my colleague and friend Senator Brown of Ohio. Senator Brown swears that Joe was 6 feet 2 inches and had hair when he worked for him, and said it is all about the farm bills that somehow changed that. But somehow I convinced Joe to come and work for me on the Agriculture Committee, in part, by assuring Senator Brown that Joe would still be working for Ohio because Senator Brown is on the Ag Committee. And I am so glad and lucky that I was able to do that. Joe started as our chief economist. He is a great numbers guy, and nobody loves spreadsheets as much as Joe. Of course, he is so much more than a numbers guy, though, and we very quickly found that out. He always knows every part of farm policy, and he is an amazing people person--someone you definitely want on your team when you go into a farm bill negotiation, which have been known to be tough.…”