Patrick Leahy: “I have listened to my friend, Jim Jeffords, the Senator from Vermont speak here this morning. I couldn't help but think…”

“I have listened to my friend, Jim Jeffords, the Senator from Vermont speak here this morning. I couldn't help but think as I heard Senator Jeffords speak with wit and clarity, and you might say even some emotion, that Jim Jeffords, given the opportunity to make a speech--and many of us will do so on this Senate floor as we leave--did it being true to himself, with his own good nature, his own sense of history, and his own justifiable pride in what he has accomplished. I have known Jim Jeffords from his days as a State senator in Rutland. I have known his wonderful wife, Liz Daley Jeffords. They are both dear friends of mine and my wife Marcel. Mrs. Jeffords was referred to as a great lady the other night by the anchor of our State's largest TV station. Some of us who have known Jim for years would say she gets that greatness for putting up with him for all these years. But we Vermonters found no difficulties in putting up with Jim Jeffords. He has been elected overwhelmingly to the offices he has held and he has done it with support from Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike. He has gotten these votes the old-fashioned way--he earned them. We came here together 32 years ago. I like to talk about the Leahys coming to Vermont in the 1850s. Jim reminds me his family came to Vermont a century before. We both live in small towns in Vermont; we have had that sense of Vermont. He has never lost it. He has been a good friend.”