On the recordDecember 12, 2012
I am so touched by the comments of my colleague Senator Mikulski about myself and Olympia. I appreciate so much that she has singled us out because Senator Mikulski is a pioneer. She didn't build the pyramids, I might say, but it was close. She was in the House first and then came to the Senate. She is our longest serving woman Senator and she will probably be dean of all the Senate at some point because she is a legend. She is a legend in the Senate, she is a legend in Maryland, and she is a legend in our country. I think back now on the things we have been able to accomplish--and it was not just because we were women--here in this deliberative body where we have 100 people representing 50 very different States. It is not that the men were against anything we have teamed up to do, but it is because of our experiences that we brought to the table. Sometimes it wasn't thought of before, before Senator Mikulski and other women came. I will point out a couple of things and embellish a little on what the Senator said. When we wrote the book ``Nine and Counting,'' there were nine women in the Senate at the time. But it came from something much bigger. It came from a meeting Senator Mikulski pulled together of the women of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It was the Catholics and the Protestants who were trying to probe the women Senators, the nine of us who were here, about how they could be effective in making peace in Northern Ireland.…
