Jay Rockefeller: “my heart is full as I think of Mike DeWine and his service here in the Senate. I didn't know Mike when I first came…”

“my heart is full as I think of Mike DeWine and his service here in the Senate. I didn't know Mike when I first came here. I didn't know anything about his visits, I think 13 or 14, to Haiti, his concern for the poor. He seems to have always been motivated by a moral compass which never wavered from those who needed him, and who weren't getting help from others. It is ironic in the best sense that he and I have cooperated on so many pieces of legislation that had to do with children and families and adoption and all kinds of things. It is ironic because in a sense he followed the father, Mr. President, of our Presiding Officer, in that role. You go to Mike's office, Mike would come to this Senator's office, legislation would appear, it would pass--and almost invariably get very little attention. That was not the purpose or the interest of the Senator from Ohio. He wanted to do good. I think of his interest in children and I think that is a moral compass. If you have that in life and you are not going to let go of that in life, then that fixes you, as the Senator from Illinois indicated, in the legacy of the Senate. I also think that his interest in Haiti says more about him than words can possibly measure.”