Orrin Hatch: “I commend the current majority leader for taking a few moments from our busy Senate schedule that Friday to introduce…”

“I commend the current majority leader for taking a few moments from our busy Senate schedule that Friday to introduce and pass a resolution commending a former majority leader, my former colleague and dear friend, Howard Baker, for his lifetime of public service. All of us who know Ambassador Baker, or have had the great pleasure of serving under him, on either side of the aisle, will see this as certainly the least controversial act this Senate will pass this year. I have known Howard Baker my entire Senate career--there are very few here who came to this body before Senator Baker did, back in 1966. And to know Howard Baker is to know consummate Southern grace and manners, to know a man who it is almost as much a pleasure to disagree with as it is to agree with. In my many years serving with Senator Baker, and under him, as my Republican Leader, when I first arrived, and as the majority leader, during the first 6 years of the Reagan administration, I had a few occasions where we stood on different sides of an issue, but many more where we did the people's business side-by-side.”