Patrick Leahy: “I have been here as a colleague in the Senate during those 11,000 votes. I don't want to ruin his reputation back home…”

“I have been here as a colleague in the Senate during those 11,000 votes. I don't want to ruin his reputation back home, but we have a significant number of those votes where he and I voted the same way, and, of course, he and I sit together or sit side by side on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and I congratulate him. These are milestones worth being noted. Senator Grassley and his wife Barbara are friends of Marcelle's and mine, and I congratulate him. His wife Barbara was kind enough both to recommend my wife for a cancer awareness award and then to introduce it just before we recessed. It has been that kind of relationship. Those of us who live in rural areas, as the distinguished Presiding Officer knows, acquire certain bonds, so I applaud the Senator.”