Tribute to Senators

Floor Speech

TRIBUTE TO SENATORS -- (Senate - November 20, 2008)

GORDON SMITH

Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, at this moment, exactly 13 years ago, I was locked in the toughest political battle of my life against Gordon H. Smith. I went on to narrowly win that race and continue to hold that Senate seat today. But Gordon Smith dusted himself off only a few months later and took on yet another very tough battle, and that time he won the Senate seat that had been held for 30 years by our remarkable Senator Mark Hatfield.

At that point, Oregonians did not know what to make of their Senate delegation. They had two Senators, myself and Senator Smith, who were replacing Bob Packwood and Mark Hatfield. Those two individuals were the chairman of the Finance Committee and the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. And, of course, the old story was that Bob Packwood got to raise all of the money because he was chairman of the Finance Committee, and Mark Hatfield got to spend it all because he was chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

Of course, I was very much concerned about what was ahead because I thought it was very possibly going to be a long and uncomfortable 6 years serving with the fellow with whom I had just duked it out over many months of a political campaign that, as the two of us like to say, was not exactly for the faint hearted.

One of the great surprises of my career came, however, when I discovered that my new colleague, Gordon Smith, was as thoughtful and kind and decent outside the political arena as he was tough and competitive inside the political arena. It was that charm and that decency and his desire to meet me halfway on Oregon's interests that got me closer to Gordon over the years and led to an unusually strong working relationship and what became a strong and genuine friendship.

Gordon lost a very tough reelection race a few weeks ago in a State that has changed rapidly from what was a very small Democratic voter edge, back when we ran against each other in 1996, to what has become a significant Democratic voter edge in 2008. Gordon and his skillful campaign team battled hard and tough as they always have. They did everything they could to withstand a formidable political tide and a very strong Democratic challenger, a challenger whom I support. So it is with mixed and conflicting emotions that I come today to pay tribute to my colleague and my friend of 12 years, Gordon H. Smith.

Gordon and I have had plenty of political differences, enough differences, differences that we knew would be the case, that made us say from our very first meeting, when Gordon won that race to replace Mark Hatfield, that we would be supporting each other's opponents in years ahead.

Political campaigns are important, and each of us was called upon to separate our friendship from our beliefs every 2 years. Yet I will say this afternoon that I have come to genuinely loathe much of what has become of the political process in our country. The relentless and omnipresent negative ads obscure and distort to the point that it can be difficult for the typical citizen to maintain anything resembling a healthy perspective on fundamentally good and decent individuals who seek public office.

Thankfully, the negative ads are now off the air, and I want to make sure Oregonians once again remember the Gordon Smith I have known for 12 years. Gordon has been a good and decent and selfless public servant.

The fact is, Gordon Smith did not need to serve another term in the Senate. He and his wife Sharon have built a strong and prosperous business, and they could have done countless things with their time that would have been more glamorous and certainly produced less strain and wear and tear on their personal lives. But Gordon ran because of his belief in the role that he believed he could play in shaping our country's future. That, in my view, is the essence of being a good public servant. No one in this body or in the State of Oregon ought to lose sight of the extraordinary sacrifices that Gordon and his wife Sharon have made over the course of almost two decades of public service.

Among Gordon's many personal triumphs in the Senate, I would like to highlight two that are especially important to our State, to our country, and to me personally. I wanted to remind my colleagues and the people of our country of the very difficult decisions made by Gordon and Sharon to share with the public and the Congress their heartrending struggle on behalf of their son, Garrett. They did this selflessly to further the cause of mental health treatment, and particularly the cause of mental health parity.

If not for Gordon's courage in sharing their family's story, I believe Congress might not have acted on mental health parity this past fall, and thousands of parents might never know that they are not alone in their difficult struggle.

There were other critical tasks that Gordon shouldered and one that I was especially appreciative for his leadership on, and that was being the voice for rural folks, for people whose way of life and quality of life is connected to natural resources that are bountiful in our State.

Gordon spoke for the farmer, and he spoke for the rancher. He spoke for the logger, for the mill worker, and the miner. He spoke for the rural communities they live in, communities that struggle to retain a voice in increasingly urban America.

It was written fairly frequently in Oregon's papers, and was in the New York Times at one point, that there was something in the State of Oregon that people came to say was the Senate's odd couple. In fact, I think the headline in the New York Times when they talked about us was wildly inflationary, and Gordon and I came to laugh about it. I think the headline was, ``Oregon's Odd Couple Makes It Work.'' It was essentially all about how there were two Senators from Oregon; one of them was a Mormon fellow. He was a Republican. He was from somewhere called Pendleton. Gordon and I were never convinced that folks in the New York Times knew exactly where Pendleton was, but that is how Gordon was described.

Then they said, the other Senator was a Jewish guy, and he was from Portland and he was a legal aide lawyer for the senior citizens, and he was an activist with the Gray Panthers. What in the world would these two people ever have in common?

Well, I want people to know that gentle spirit, that Mormon from wheat and pea country taught this Jewish fellow from the city an awful lot about the too often forgotten voices, particularly those in our rural communities.

In his absence, I will do everything I can to remind colleagues, particularly Democratic colleagues on my side of the aisle, of the challenges faced in rural communities, of the people and the issues that GORDON H. SMITH championed every single day in the Senate. I wish GORDON and Sharon well in whatever their future endeavors are. I have already made it clear they will always have my friendship and assistance in any project they pursue in the days ahead. But most importantly, I come to the floor and thank GORDON for his personal friendship to me and his service to our State. I ask my colleagues here and the people of our home State to voice their thanks today to two very special people, Sharon and GORDON H. SMITH.

I yield the floor.

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