-9999
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, no one wants to follow that, but I just thought that I should say a few words, as a classmate coming in together--many of us sitting in this back row for so long--back, the class of 2006, 17 years.
And I am going to miss Jon Tester. I am going to miss the bubble gum in his desk that I always steal. I am going to miss when his name shows up when he is calling, how it makes me smile because I know he is going to say something funny, no matter what is going on. And we are all going to miss him.
So I remember Jon and I sitting kind of here--but I think we were over there--in one of our first speeches in the U.S. Senate, and Trent Lott--remember this?--was talking about ethics reform. Jon and I had run on ethics reform. And Trent Lott was saying: If this stuff passes, we are going to be left with nothing but our bathrobes in the Russell courtyard. That was exactly what he said. And Jon and I were sitting in the back. And at the time, they had us in trailers in the Russell courtyard. And I remember we looked at each other and said: Well, so what. It couldn't get any worse than where we are now. Like, that is what we are doing now.
And that was the old days when to even get any of these ethics rules passed, it was really hard.
And what Senator Booker was saying about you being brave and ahead of your time--from the moment you got here, you were ahead of your time about what this job meant.
Then I remember Sharla. I am looking for her up there. Right up there; there she is. The very first official, big event I ever did with Jon, I was following him up on the podium. And I remember he got up there, and he said: You know what, I have been traveling all over the country, and I am going to win this race.
This was 2006.
I am going to win this race, I know I am; but right now, I haven't seen my wife Sharla for 3 weeks, and I have a beer sitting at the table, and I am going to just go back and sit with my wife and have that beer. Thank you.
And he got a standing ovation for that speech. And it was just an example of Jon: to the point, all the time.
My favorite note that I am going to save forever in my desk, it was during the impeachment hearing. Many of you remember Sherrod would always be kind of talking out of turn. But we would have a lot of mentions--I see our friends down there remembering this--of the Founding Fathers at the time. So I have a note that I wrote to Bob Casey that said: As it approaches midnight and we keep hearing about the Founding Fathers, I start to think that you look like a Founding Father, Bob. Your hair looks like a Founding Father. But Tester, not so much.
We are going to miss your barber, wherever he is. And he is back in Montana, I am sure.
But I remember some of Jon's first ads where he had his barber in those ads. And it just was him, and it is him now. And he looks exactly the same with his haircut as he did when he first started running.
There has been a lot of talk about his incredible leadership, many things he has done, worked with us on competition issues, trying to make sure that we still have small farms in this country. And it means something. But for me, the most meaningful thing, Jon, was that PACT Act and how, when our veterans signed up to serve, there shouldn't be a waiting line, and when they come home to this country and they have a healthcare problem and they want to get in to get healthcare at the VA or they want to get coverage, there should never be a waiting line in the United States of America.
Jon did that--Jon's leadership--working across the aisle, like he has done on so many other things.
We are going to miss his Montana rural work ethic, his sense of humor, his 40-pound suitcases of meat that he butchered himself, and, yes, even his musical talents. Because in addition to us losing a tireless champion for Montana, we are also going to lose the Senate's only trumpet player and, certainly, the Senate's only seven-fingered trumpet player.
So, Mr. President, I join my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to celebrate Jon Tester and to know he is not going to be far away--the flattop dirt farmer who went from Havre, MT, to the U.S. Senate and never forgot where he came from.
(Applause.)
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source