Rob Portman: “Look. I am so proud to be here to say a couple of words about my friend Saxby. As you have heard from my colleagues, he…”

“Look. I am so proud to be here to say a couple of words about my friend Saxby. As you have heard from my colleagues, he is beloved. By the way, two of those who spoke are Senators who are also choosing to leave us. Tom Coburn talked about leadership. I will tell you, they are leaving a huge void. I got to know Saxby when he came to the House of Representatives. I was there in the early 1990s, and we became friends. Although I am from Ohio and he is a son of the South, he and Julianne embraced me and Jane, and I got to know his son Bo--such a great family. But I didn't truly get to know him until I was the U.S. Trade Representative and my job was to try to open markets for U.S. agricultural products around the world. That required looking at something called subsidies--agriculture subsidies. This is a dangerous area in terms of politics, and Mike Johanns is very well aware of this as an ex-Secretary of Agriculture, having been at my side during some of these negotiations. My job was to come to the Senate ag committee and talk about what we were up to and try to find out how much flexibility there was for us to get these markets open that were so important for our farmers and ranchers but entailed considerable political risk. I learned a new Saxby Chambliss there. That is when I saw the leadership that was talked about earlier. Saxby was willing to not just be constructive but to take that risk and to be totally discreet and confidential in dealing with very sensitive issues.…”