Tribute to Senators

Floor Speech

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

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, this is not my desk. I choose to speak from this place because the vantage point is better, because I will also have something to say about the delightful wife of Senator Ted Stevens. I am the junior-most Member of this body. I am here today with the junior Senator from Alaska and two of the longest serving Members of the Senate. It is almost presumptuous for me to even rise to speak at this occasion, but I do so because as the least ranking Member of the Senate, I wish to express my profound respect for Senator Ted Stevens.

The previous speaker, my friend from Kentucky, said one way to get to know Members such as Ted Stevens is to go to a conference with them. As a Member of the House of Representatives, I had occasion to go to conferences sponsored by the Aspen Institute where we would discuss matters of importance to our Nation and to the world. It was at a conference in Istanbul on the subject of political Islam that I learned about the keen intellect of Senator Ted Stevens, and also the fact that a participant in that conference could be less than half Senator Stevens' age, but he was willing to engage with you, to listen to you, to have the give and take you can have in small group sessions such as that. I appreciate the opportunity I had as a Member then of the House of Representatives in having that sort of interaction with this great man.

There has been expression today about the seemingly gruff exterior or facade of the man we speak of today. I will tell my colleagues who he is gruff about. He is not too happy about people such as Islamic jihadists, about the opponents of freedom around the world. He is a little gruff about anyone around the globe who would wish our country ill, and he makes no bones about that.

I wish to commend Senator Stevens and to express my admiration to him for the good judgment and good fortune he has had in having as a spouse someone such as Catherine Stevens.

I mention two very small stories that I think tell a lot about both Senator Stevens and Catherine. We were at this conference and my wife was not able to accompany me. According to the rules, I was able to bring my college-age daughter Caroline. It happened that she needed to take an earlier flight to get back and I would stay with the conference for another day. I found out later what happened. She said: Daddy, Mrs. Stevens gave me some money before I left. It happened this way: Mrs. Stevens asked Caroline how much money she had to make it through the various airports and Caroline told her and, as usual, her cheapskate dad had shortchanged her. Mrs. Stevens said, That is not enough money, and she pulled out a couple of hundred dollar bills to make sure Caroline got through the airport system safely. Here was the wife of the President pro tempore of the Senate being kind and being careful that a college-age girl was well taken care of. I paid the money back, I wish to assure my colleagues, but I don't know that I will ever be able to pay back the friendship.

I have only been in the Senate some 10 months. Early on I offered an amendment which was important to my State and my region. It was obvious that the amendment did not have the support of a majority. It was going to go down and go down in flames, as it did. I was down close to the front and had already abandoned all hope for the amendment passing. I am sure Ted does not even remember this, but he walked by the desk there and cast an aye vote for the Wicker amendment. He was one of the few people to do so. Someone was taking Senator Stevens to task for voting yes. He did not know I was listening, but I heard him say, ``I did it to help Wicker.'' I am sure that was the only reason he cast that vote. I can tell my colleagues I appreciated that act of kindness, just as I appreciated Catherine Stevens' act of kindness toward my daughter.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said:

Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime, and departing, leave behind us footprints on the sands of time.

Now, the junior Senator from Alaska did a wonderful job of outlining the many footprints our friend Ted Stevens has left for both the United States of America and the people specifically of his beloved State of Alaska. The people of Alaska will long live better, Alaskans yet unborn will live better because of the efforts of Ted Stevens. Americans today and Americans yet unborn will be safer and live freer because of the service and the leadership of Ted Stevens. I am honored down to my bones to be able to stand on the floor of the Senate today and pay tribute to this great man.

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