Political Quotes

“in behalf of this House, we welcome the Honorable Bill Broomfield to this Chamber again, to his old stomping grounds. Bill helped me when he was first elected to office in 1957, in his first year, and he helped me again in his last year in 1992. In 1957, my brother, Chan, who was a jet pilot, was killed in Asia. All of his personal effects had been lost coming back to Michigan. Chan's wife, Bonnie, who was from Royal Oak, and I went to Bill Broomfield. And so this new freshman Congressman pushed ahead, found Chan's personal effects and got them back to us. Again when I was first elected in 1992, I went to Bill Broomfield who had been a friend to help give me some guidance on learning to be a good Congressman. What struck me as significant is Bill said, "Look, one of the things I try to do the best I can is responding honestly and quickly to mail coming in from constituents." At that time the Congressman had a turnaround time for 98 percent of his mail of 24 hours. So he had set a target and achieved it. Do we not all wish we had the ability to respond to constituent inquiries in a 24-hour turnaround time; that we could give that kind of attention and dedication to mail? He did that. I have tried to follow his advice and example.…”