Tributes to Retiring Senators

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
SENATE
Nov. 19, 2004

TRIBUTES TO RETIRING SENATORS
TOM DASCHLE

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, you can learn a lot about a person by the way he handles winning, and you can learn even more about someone by the way he handles and accepts defeat. TOM DASCHLE does not know that I know this, but I saw an e-mail he sent recently to someone on his staff.

TOM DASCHLE was concerned about a man with whom he talked one day late in the campaign when he was calling undecided voters in his home State of South Dakota. The man was not rich or powerful. He was just an average South Dakota citizen.

This man used to work for the Government. He received many awards at his work. This is what TOM DASCHLE wrote in that e-mail:

One day, the man started to suffer extreme stress and even depression. The psychiatrist told him he had to retire from his work . . . under a medical discharge. Afterwards, (the government) denied him a medical retirement. They said it can only be for physical reasons.

He was denied medical access and retirement pay. He has since also had a heart attack. He asked me for help in getting a medical retirement. I told him we would be happy to try and would follow up.

TOM DASCHLE in his e-mail went on to say:

Could you have someone contact him and look into this? It just doesn't seem right.

The date on that e-mail was November 8, 6 days after the election, 6 days after what had to be one of the most heartbreaking losses in his life.

The reason TOM DASCHLE got into politics in the first place, the reason he ran for leadership positions in the Senate, and the reason he worked his heart out for this job was never to get rich or to get attention. He tried to bring power to help the powerless, the average person, the people to whom life had given some unfair breaks.

Even now, until the minute he has to relinquish his power, TOM DASCHLE is using his power to help people who still look to him as their last best hope.

Golda Meir once famously told a political rival:

Don't be humble. You're not that great.

But TOM DASCHLE is great enough and good enough to be truly humble. He will never talk about all the people he helped, all the people to whom he has given hope, but I can tell you there are people all across South Dakota and all across America whose lives are better because TOM DASCHLE was in the Senate.

"It just doesn't seem right"-that is what TOM DASCHLE wrote in that e-mail, and it just doesn't seem right that we are going to have a Senate without TOM DASCHLE to keep fighting for what is all good and decent about America.

My consolation is that I know TOM and Linda and their family will find another noble way to continue serving this Nation, defending the values we cherish and making life better for people who need a champion.

Someone noted that this is a cruel business, and it is. There are three ways to leave the Senate. Two of them are not very good. In this situation, we have seen a man who has given 26 years of his personal life to South Dakota and to the Nation, and he made a decision a year ago to retire. In the past year, I am sure there would have been a succession of tributes, dinners, schools, and highways and bridges being named after him and maybe statues and plaques commissioned. But instead, he stood for election. He had the courage to stand again. Although he did not succeed, I hope the people of South Dakota realize that he was a man who loved them throughout his political life and those of us who were honored to call him a friend and a colleague love him and will miss him.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.