Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today I rise to honor and pay tribute to Herbert ``Bertie'' Bowman who passed away on October 25, 2023, at the age of 92 after a remarkable life and over six decades of service to the U.S. Senate. As has been noted by my colleague Senator Cardin, Bertie was the embodiment of the American Dream. Bertie began his Capitol Hill career by sweeping steps of the Capitol after running away from his South Carolina home, where his family members were sharecroppers, following a chance encounter with then-Senator Burnet Maybank in a Summerton, SC, general store. Senator Maybank invited Bertie--then only 13 years old-- to come see him in Washington sometime, and that is just what he did. A week later, Bertie hopped on a train bound for Union Station and ended up in the Senator's office. The Senator gave him his first job-- to sweep the Capitol steps for $2 a week--and from there, he went on to build a reputation on Capitol Hill as someone who could do it all. According to his memoir, Bertie's mother gave him the best career advice anyone could ask for. She said, ``Be patient and do what you're supposed to do.'' Over his many decades in the Senate, one job led to another, and Bertie eventually got a clerical position with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1966. He left the Senate in 1990 to run his own chauffeur service, but he returned to the Foreign Relations Committee a decade later as hearing coordinator--a job he held until his nineties.…”