Bill Bennett: “Mr. President, we here in the greater Washington area have been celebrating the remarkable baseball career of Cal…”

“Mr. President, we here in the greater Washington area have been celebrating the remarkable baseball career of Cal Ripken. I sometimes do not like sports analogies, but I would like to draw on one relating to Cal Ripken, and other sports heroes, to give you my take on the majority leader, the Senator from Kansas, Bob Dole. We have sports heroes in the various sports that we follow in this country, who will have a brilliant season, and as a result of that brilliant season, be all over the papers as a tremendous performer. And then something happens and they fade from our consciousness. If I can switch from the Orioles for just a moment and go back to the New York Yankees, I would like to talk about Roger Maris, who set a record for the most home runs in a single season. When you think of the primary home run hitter of the Yankees, you do not think of Roger Maris, you think of Babe Ruth, or of the modern counterpart to Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron. Babe Ruth had a brilliant season, with 60 home runs. But the reason we remember him is because he endured over a long period of time and set the record for the most home runs in an entire career, which stood until Hank Aaron came along and did more over an entire career. We must judge Senators, public leaders, not on the basis of a brilliant season, or a brilliant speech, or a brilliant campaign, but by what they do over a long career.”