Political Quotes

“I, like all my colleagues, was saddened by Joe's death, even though we knew that it was inevitable. But I had an opportunity to serve with him on the Committee on Rules for 5 rac{1}{2} years, and if I were to describe Joe as simply as I could, he was a very courteous individual, and I think that was something that obviously was not made up. He had a great wit, and there are a number of times when we have these late night rules meetings that that wit would disarm tension, and it would disarm tension here on the floor. But I also discovered that he was very principled in his philosophy, but yet he was one who very much wanted to work together. I guess because of the job that we have here, there are a lot of people that draw impressions of all of us through how we communicate on C-SPAN. I recall before I was elected to this position, to Congress, that there was a show that featured Joe Moakley on C-SPAN. It went on for about an hour, and he would talk about his background, he talked about his philosophy, he talked about getting a Federal building here or there in his district, and I was struck by that program. I watched it the whole time. At that time, of course, I was not a Member of Congress, I did not think that I would ever be here. But I discovered when I got here that the Joe Moakley that impressed me with that show on C-SPAN was exactly the same Joe Moakley that was portrayed there.”