Vito Fossella: “I came to respect him and honor him. Those are things that I think if we can just set some time aside to pay tribute…”

“I came to respect him and honor him. Those are things that I think if we can just set some time aside to pay tribute, that is why I am here. But the second and probably more important reason why I am here is that my great grandfather served in this body, 1935. He died when he was in Congress. He died from cancer. Obviously I did not know my great grandfather. His name was James O'Leary, probably not too dissimilar in his politics than Joe Moakley. Although one distinction, everyone has been focusing on Joe Moakley, the Irish politician. The fact is he was half Italian, and I guess the unofficial head of the Gaelic and garlic caucus, as he liked to put it, as am I. But the fact of the matter is, while my grandfather served in this body and, again, probably had similar views to Joe Moakley, a few years before my grandmother died, she gave me a leather-bound book. In that book were transcripts of a ceremony similar to this. That had my grandfather's colleagues on the floor of the House paying tribute to then-Congressman O'Leary.”