Political Quotes

“Bill Emerson was a colleague to all the Members that are here on the floor. To me, he was my oldest and dearest personal friend. As all my colleagues have learned, as we go through life, particularly in politics, friends and associates come and go, but our real friends are from our childhood. Bill and I were fortunate enough to meet at the tender age of 15, and I do not think there was ever a year that went by in our lives that we did not have an opportunity to get together, visit with each other or talk with each other. I went through many of his trying times and many of his joys in his lifetime. Bill Emerson represented something that I want to speak to, because I think it is germane. Maybe we should think about forming the Emerson Society. Because Bill, whenever I look in the back of the Chamber, I see a little smoke and I know that you are still standing at the rail. He was the type of guy, although he was a Republican and I a Democrat, with whom I could argue and disagree on philosophy and on ideology. But on humanity we agreed.”