Tribute to Senator Edward Kennedy on Casting His 15,000th Vote

Floor Speech

TRIBUTE TO SENATOR EDWARD KENNEDY ON CASTING HIS 15,000TH VOTE -- (Senate - September 04, 2007)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I am happy to join in this chorus of praise for the senior Senator from Massachusetts on the occasion of the 15,000th vote he has cast--a historic milestone in this historic body and a milestone reached by only two other Senators, only one of whom continues to serve with great distinction, the man from West Virginia, SENATOR ROBERT C. BYRD. Senator EDWARD MOORE KENNEDY has now added his name to this roster of distinction.

He is the ninth child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy, born on February 22, 1932--200 years to the day after George Washington. In a family such as the Kennedys, I am sure that coincidence did not go unnoticed. Years ago, TED KENNEDY made the Senate the focus of his public life. Some say that decision has helped him to become one of the best Senators ever to serve this body. His dedication to principle and his willingness to delve deeply into tough issues really have been the hallmarks of his public service.

In his biography of Senator TED KENNEDY, former New York Times reporter Adam Clymer recalls a hearing in the 1960s in the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee on which both TED and his brother, Bobby Kennedy, then Senator from New York, served. Clymer describes how the two Kennedys had to wait 2 hours to question a witness because they were both junior members of the Senate at the time. Bobby Kennedy seemed almost pained by the tedium of sitting there hour after hour waiting his turn. TED was more patient.

Exasperated, Bobby Kennedy leaned over and asked his brother: Is this the way I become a good Senator, sitting here and waiting my turn?

TED KENNEDY replied to his brother: Yes.

Bobby shot back: How many hours do I have to sit here to be a good Senator?

And TEDDY said: As long as necessary.

Well, when it comes to 15,000 votes, I am sure that will be a record which will be hard to match. But when it comes down to it, it is not about the quantity of TED KENNEDY's votes, it is about the quality of his politics. He really cares. He cares about people. He cares about the people who can't afford a lobbyist to stand out in the hallway and beg for a vote. He cares about the people who get up every morning and worry that nobody has noticed their lives, lives of sacrifice and lives of difficulty. He cares about those people. They won't be holding big fundraisers with political action committees, but they are the people who have energized him in his public career.

He also cares about the people with whom he works. I can't think of another colleague with whom I have ever served in the House or Senate who really reaches out in so many different ways to each of us on a personal level to show that he cares. If you have a child in the hospital, an illness in the family, the loss of a loved one, you can count on a telephone call from Ted Kennedy. If no one else remembers, he will.

He also works every single day. I think that is the thing which surprised me my 10 years in the Senate, was just the energy level of Senator TED KENNEDY. He never stops. And now, in his majority position as chairman of the HELP Committee, he has an agenda he has been waiting on for way too long, an agenda which included increasing the minimum wage in America for the first time in 10 years, an agenda which is going to lead us into the kind of help for students across America to go to college that we haven't seen since the passage of the GI bill after World War II. Time and again, this Senator has used his commitment and combined it with an energy that has produced dramatic results.

I have had the honor of serving on the Judiciary Committee with him, and I know that from time to time he has stood up and taken a lonely and sometimes difficult political position for what he believed was right. It is that kind of courage and dedication to principle which leads me to believe he is one of the finest colleagues with whom I have ever had the honor to serve.

Finally, he knows that life here in the Senate is a privilege. It is a privilege for each of us. Although he has been here longer than most--perhaps only one other Senator has been here longer--he understands that for each of us this is a great privilege, to represent great States in a great nation. It is a source of great pride for me to have once sat in that gallery as a college student and looked down on Senator TED KENNEDY on the floor, wondering if I would ever meet him, and to be able to stand here today on the occasion of his 15,000th vote and to count him as a friend and an inspiration.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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