Russ Feingold: “In these last few days of the 105th Congress, when I come to the floor, I often look wistfully to the aisle just to my…”

“In these last few days of the 105th Congress, when I come to the floor, I often look wistfully to the aisle just to my left here, where Dale Bumpers has trod up and down yanking the microphone cord and dispensing wisdom for just about twenty-four years now. The other day he gave his last speech here, and it was brilliant--an eloquent and moving reminder of the best purposes of politics. But now I want to look back and pay tribute to my friend Dale Bumpers for what he has done and what he has been for me, for the Senate, for his beloved Arkansas and for our country. Dale Bumpers was born in Charleston, Arkansas in 1925, and it's from that little town he first drew the values he has eloquently proclaimed on this floor for two and a half decades. In a small town in western Arkansas during the Depression, young Dale Bumpers learned about human suffering and deprivation, learned to believe that it could be defeated and came to understand, on his father's knee, that the government could be a force for good in that struggle.”