Political Quotes

“there are several of us that have remarks about Bill Archer, and I will begin. I hope Bill and Sharon Archer are watching this program, because I do not believe anybody has said so many nice words to him to his face. We always say things behind people's backs, and it is easier to say things in public many times than it is in private. I think we all have felt these things, but it is many times embarrassing to say them on a one- to-one basis. So, Bill, if you are listening, I do not want you to inhale all this stuff, but we really do believe it and want to express our appreciation and what you mean to us. It is always hard to say good-bye to somebody, particularly somebody for whom you have such respect. I am not a tax lawyer. I am far from it. And one of the great courses I have ever taken, when I came to this place, was from Bill Archer in terms of tax law. I do not consider myself a great tax expert now, but whatever I have learned, I have learned from Bill Archer in a very solid and sort of relaxed way trying to explain the intricacies. One of the things which I, as a sort of historian, have been interested in is his background, talking about institutional memory. Here is a fellow who was here when Wilbur Mills was here. Here was a fellow who was here when Russell Long was here. Those great titans of finance in our government gave him, obviously, a bedrock and an understanding of what the whole place was about in the thrust of the Committee on Ways and Means.”