Patrick Leahy: “I have listened to my good friend from Kentucky, who has been my good friend from the time we first met as newly elected…”

“I have listened to my good friend from Kentucky, who has been my good friend from the time we first met as newly elected Members of the class of 1974. We came here together, and I can honestly say, Mr. President, that I have looked to Senator Ford for guidance on every issue since then. I came from a small county office, and he came from being Governor of a State much larger than Vermont ever has been or ever will be. I remember debates we had when we were in the majority and in the minority, and back to the majority and then back to the minority. Wendell Ford's was one of the voices we would listen to as we tried to find the answers that made sense for the country and for each other. Wendell Ford also had a quality that was very much the quality of all Senators, Republican and Democrat, when he first came here--a quality that, perhaps, some today should remind themselves of, because it existed universally then, and that is the quality of when a Senator gives his word, his word is gold.”