On the recordJune 23, 2021
I thank my colleague from Michigan and all my friends for this Special Order hour. Paul, you might not know this, but you are an important mentor of mine, one of the most important mentors I have had in my brief career in this Chamber. You represent the very most precious and sometimes rare of attributes in the U.S. Congress, and that is principle. You are a man of principle at a time when our country needs that and you more than ever. You are a man of great intelligence and success and decency and empathy and honesty and integrity. I remember my first conversation with Paul, we were speaking about higher education. And it was that conversation that reminded me that we can learn so much more from people of different perspectives than we do from those who are cut from the same cloth. And when Paul made the difficult but very principled decision to become an Independent at the end of his career here in Congress, he wrote a letter to the House Clerk to announce the change in affiliation, and the last line of the letter read: ``While admittedly symbolic, we all know that symbols matter. We all know that symbols matter.'' And when you retired from Congress, Paul, you said: ``I can't begin to express to you how difficult it is to say something like `I am done' because I have never been done before.'' And let me tell you, my friend, you are not done yet, and we sure as heck are not done with you.…
