Political Quotes

“Well, it is never easy to bid farewell to a retiring colleague, but, boy, this one is hard. It is even harder to bid farewell to a friend; and everyone is Pat's friend. But today, we say thank you not to just a colleague and not just a dear friend, but to an institution all his own. Pat, we are here to say we honor you. We are here to say we will miss you. Most of all, we are here to say we are happy for you on your well- earned retirement. We all just heard Pat speaking so eloquently, so beautifully from the heart, from his good soul. And it took a lot of strength for all of us to keep this together. I saw lots of misty eyes in different parts of his speech--lots of misty eyes. It is the conclusion of an era here in the Senate. We will call this the Leahy era for all you have done. It is an era that began in the aftermath of Watergate and now concludes nearly 50 years and 8 terms later, a legacy that includes so much--Appropriations chair, Judiciary chair, President pro tempore. And to be sure, he is finishing his tenure precisely the way we all expect him to, by being up at 1:30 a.m. this morning--it kept getting later--to file the omnibus. If you looked up the word ``Senator'' in the dictionary, you wouldn't be crazy to expect a picture of Pat included alongside that word. His name is synonymous with everything good, dignified, and admirable in the upper Chamber. Pat learned so much in the years he has been here, and Pat was everything.…”