Jim Jordan: “I thank the gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) for putting this together. It is always appropriate to take time…”

“I thank the gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson) for putting this together. It is always appropriate to take time to honor excellence and honor real achievement, and that is Kelly Armstrong's tenure here in the United States House of Representatives. There is the old line that there are folks in politics who you wish weren't. Sometimes, I say that those are Democrats. That gets a laugh, typically from Republicans. Then, there are people like Kelly who you are glad chose public service because he has all those qualities that Dusty just talked about, those qualities that make him not just a good legislator, not just a good Congressman, but a good person and a good friend. There is also the old line that it never hurts to have smart people in charge. Kelly Armstrong is one sharp guy. He understands politics and policy, and from my perspective, he really understands the law and how our legal system is supposed to work and the rights that we are supposed to protect, those fundamental liberties that the people we get the privilege of serving want us to protect. When you couple smarts and intelligence with hard work, there was not one single hearing I was ever a part of--and I got to serve with Kelly on two different committees--where he was not prepared for the witness, prepared for the cross-examination, prepared for the direct examination, prepared for the markup.…”