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Floor Speech
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Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, there were few people in the Congress that tangled with Doug LaMalfa more than me. There is probably some competition for that honor among House Democrats, but I was certainly right up there.
Yet, I can tell you as we honor Doug today, I know plenty of people who disagreed with him, but I don't know anyone that disliked him. When you hear these qualities about his authenticity, his warm sense of humor, just how relatable he was, that is all very, very true.
I go back almost 20 years with Doug because we were in the State legislature together. A lot has been said about his sense of humor, which is also very, very true. I want to just share something that I always think of with Doug because it speaks to the type of humor which is really, I think, something that tells you about the man. There are plenty of people who have a great sense of humor at other people's expense. Doug LaMalfa had a very gentle and disarming sense of humor.
One of our colleagues together in the State assembly was our former colleague and the current mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass. I will always remember how Doug used to crack her and me up by calling her Bassomatic. That was the nickname. His staffers back here are far too young to remember the ``Saturday Night Live'' skit in which Dan Aykroyd puts a bass in a blender and makes this gross smoothie and drinks it. It was funny, and that is the kind of thing that Doug would pull up spontaneously and crack everyone up. I loved that.
I will tell you, Karen Bass loved it too. She liked it so much that she went up to Doug's district when she became speaker of the assembly, and I remember he just not only welcomed her there--this is a person he had very little in common with, a southern California urban African- American member that voted together with him almost never, but Doug gave her the VIP tour of his farm and of the Sacramento Valley and rice country. He got her up in a combine and had her do things that I am sure she will never forget. I think he loved every minute of that.
That is how I am going remember Doug. He was a great guy. I am certainly thinking and sending best wishes to his family and everyone who loved him.
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