Political Quotes

“I am deeply moved this morning, as are Senators all over America today--not only those who are present in the Senate, but so many who have gone on from the Senate to other careers-- about the loss of our distinguished colleague Senator Thurmond. I think it is coincidental, and indeed most fitting, that the Presiding Officer in the Chamber this morning is the son of the distinguished Senator from Rhode Island, Senator John Chafee. I first met Senator Thurmond when I joined then the Secretary of the Navy, John Chafee, as his principal deputy and in later years to succeed him. Really, our first call was to come to the Senate to meet with Richard Russell, John Stennis, Strom Thurmond, John Tower, and Barry Goldwater. I remember our calls as the brand-new team of the Secretary of the Navy during the height of the war in Vietnam--at least one of the periods of great intensity--was in 1969. Senator Thurmond greeted us in his office in the same way that he greeted me throughout my 25 years in the Senate. Each of those years--except since his retirement in January that I shared with him, as did John Chafee and others--it was a learning experience every day you were with him. I stop to think of the men and women of the Armed Forces today all across the world, engaged in fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, and guarding the outposts of freedom. They have not lost Strom Thurmond because they have the wealth of the memories of him.”