Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, there is work to be done tonight and we will get to it, but I think it is important that we take the time tonight to honor Lou Stokes. I speak as a junior member of the Committee on Appropriations, and I speak tonight symbolically from the other side of the aisle to pay tribute to Lou Stokes and the wonderful way that he has worked with members of the majority and minority parties in this House and the great example he has set, and to say that it has been a genuine pleasure to serve on the Appropriations Committee with Lou Stokes. I have served on two subcommittees with Mr. Stokes, Labor-HHS and VA- HUD, and I have heard tributes at the subcommittee level, at the full committee level, and I have listened with interest and with admiration and with agreement. I have heard him called by many descriptions, Mr. Chairman, and I subscribe to them all: Mentor, role model, a worthy adversary from time to time, a champion for his State and for his district, and a champion in every sense of the word, a classic, and a friend. But, Mr. Chairman, where I come from, one of the most supreme compliments that can be paid to a man is to call him a southern gentleman, and in thinking about this I spoke with Mr. Stokes' other colleague (Mr. Kucinich), also from Cleveland, and we decided that if one looks at the map just right, Lou Stokes comes from southern Cuyahoga County, and he indeed qualifies as a southern gentleman.”