Rob Bishop: “Thank you, the gentleman from Georgia. It's my pleasure to be here as part of this tribute to Jay Pierson and everything…”

“Thank you, the gentleman from Georgia. It's my pleasure to be here as part of this tribute to Jay Pierson and everything that he has done. I met Jay Pierson the first day I was in the session when there were about three of us who came on to the floor and sat over I think where the staffers are sitting right now, just to watch what was taking place on the floor. Jay came over to us and said, if you all want to speak, you've got about 7 minutes left. I was shocked at that time to imagine that somebody would actually come on the floor and speak without any preparation or without knowing the complete details of any of the bills we're debating on the floor. I have learned much since that time, and much of what I have learned is by watching Jay's protection of this institution, this floor, the procedures, the protocols and the order that we have. He also helped me out individually by introducing me to Chesterton and giving me a couple of books by him that I had the opportunity of reading. I hope I have given most of them back by now. But in addition to that, his book on orthodoxy, he once wrote: Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. There are many who object to being disqualified by accident of birth. Tradition objects to their being disqualified by accident of death. The ideas that we have here are those that keep us going as a group. He also wrote in that same book that if you free a camel from its hump, he is no longer a camel.…”