Alan Simpson: “Bob Packwood will soon be absent from us. He is also my friend. He will always be my friend. He was chairman of the…”

“Bob Packwood will soon be absent from us. He is also my friend. He will always be my friend. He was chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee and helped to recruit me for this Senate post early in the year 1978. He has been loyal, steadfast, and true. And I trust that I was able to return that to him in earnest friendship. I have prepared some notes. Many of you know me well, and when I really have something to say, I write it down in my own way, no staff, no winging it, which has sometimes put me in a lot of trouble. But I just want to share a few things that come from down deep inside, and they are brief. They may match some of the things said by my dear friend Mark Hatfield and dear friend John McCain. This remarkable career of Bob Packwood's public service will now end. The political story of his life will close on its final chapter. But other aspects of his life will go on. And we must not, we cannot, and we should not forget the extraordinary accomplishments and successes of this superior legislator simply because of the maelstrom of negatives that have poured forth from some who have chosen to act as judge, jury, and executioner, at so many levels of our society. He was the man who always fought so hard for women and their rights. No one can challenge that statement. He was the man who worked doggedly for civil rights and fairness and empowerment for the lesser people of society.”