Patrick Leahy: “I wish to do what I have done several times on the floor this week, and that is to thank my good friend and colleague…”

“I wish to do what I have done several times on the floor this week, and that is to thank my good friend and colleague, the distinguished senior Senator from West Virginia. He is to all our colleagues not only a dear friend but a great mentor. As I have said--and I realize I repeat myself--I have learned so much history not only this week but in the 25 years I have served with him. Senator Byrd was one of the very first Senators I met after I was elected to the Senate. We chatted at a dinner, in Boston, which he will recall, at the residence of the then-mayor of Boston--he and I and a classmate of mine from law school, John Durkin. John and I had both graduated from law school 10 years before, and probably of hubris, chutzpah, or foolishness, we were both running for the Senate--10 years later, in 1974. We met with Senator Byrd at that time. I began my practice of keeping a journal. I recently went back to read it. The Senator from West Virginia told of his childhood--not being one born with a silver spoon in his mouth. There probably wasn't a silver spoon in the house. He told me what he had done--self-taught, went on to school, learned more, and learned history as few men in this country ever have. But then he had the opportunity not only to learn history but to live history, as he has done day after day after day for over 40 years in the Congress of the United States, in both bodies. I wrote down some of the things he said that night.…”