Amy Klobuchar: “no one wants to follow that, but I just thought that I should say a few words, as a classmate coming in together--many…”

“no one wants to follow that, but I just thought that I should say a few words, as a classmate coming in together--many of us sitting in this back row for so long--back, the class of 2006, 17 years. And I am going to miss Jon Tester. I am going to miss the bubble gum in his desk that I always steal. I am going to miss when his name shows up when he is calling, how it makes me smile because I know he is going to say something funny, no matter what is going on. And we are all going to miss him. So I remember Jon and I sitting kind of here--but I think we were over there--in one of our first speeches in the U.S. Senate, and Trent Lott--remember this?--was talking about ethics reform. Jon and I had run on ethics reform. And Trent Lott was saying: If this stuff passes, we are going to be left with nothing but our bathrobes in the Russell courtyard. That was exactly what he said. And Jon and I were sitting in the back. And at the time, they had us in trailers in the Russell courtyard. And I remember we looked at each other and said: Well, so what. It couldn't get any worse than where we are now. Like, that is what we are doing now. And that was the old days when to even get any of these ethics rules passed, it was really hard. And what Senator Booker was saying about you being brave and ahead of your time--from the moment you got here, you were ahead of your time about what this job meant. Then I remember Sharla. I am looking for her up there.…”