Mark Gordon: “Thank you, Joe Moakley. I thank you for all your leadership and friendship when we served together on the Committee on…”

“Thank you, Joe Moakley. I thank you for all your leadership and friendship when we served together on the Committee on Rules. No matter how acrimonious things would get there, you were always able to tell a quick joke and help us to move forward. You certainly serve a great function there. For those of us that know Joe, that know that probably the last place he wants to be tonight is right here, hearing Members say good things about him, I want to try to be very brief, because this is really sort of a bittersweet time for me. I know now that inevitably I am not going to see as much of my buddy, that we are going to be friends and we are going to stay in touch, but we are not going to see each other on a daily basis. That is a hard thing to come to grips with, when you have spent so much time with someone over the years. But I am so happy for his new future. I am also very sad that this House is going to lose his strong, passionate, energetic voice for the less fortunate, for the working men and women of this country. As so many folks have said here, Joe just does not say it, he feels it. And when you look up on the board and you see his vote, there is no compromises there. That is what he thinks needs to be done. I do not think that I have seen anybody in the last 12 years that has worked harder at trying to make everyday working people's lives better, at trying to make sure that those folks that are less fortunate have a chance to get ahead.”