Welcoming The Honorable Mark Sanford To The House Of Representatives
Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress, I look forward to working with each one of you. Republican and Democrat, different perspectives we may hold, but at the end of the day we are…
Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress, I look forward to working with each one of you. Republican and Democrat, different perspectives we may hold, but at the end of the day we are here to represent the people of South Carolina, and I look forward to going about that business with you.
I see friends, like Eliot Engel, who were so kind to call me in the wake of the events of 2009, Democrat that he may be. I see a whole host of Republicans, long friends; and it is, indeed, an honor to be back with each one of you.
I look forward to working with you on a whole host of issues. Obviously, the greatest among them for me will be efforts to get our financial house back in order here in Washington, D.C. But above all else, here on this day, I am simply humbled to be here.
Each one of our lives involves different journeys, but on that journey I think that we can, in essence, be taken to places wherein we develop levels of appreciation perhaps that we never had before.
And so I stand here before each one of you more appreciative than I ever could have been for the honor of working with each one of you here in the United States Congress, the Congress of the Nation most blessed of all nations here on this Earth. I stand before you most appreciative of the people of the First Congressional District of South Carolina that Joe just alluded to, a people who have taught me a whole lot about love and humility, about wisdom, and about grace. I stand before you, I guess, with a whole new appreciation, indeed, for a God of second chances, and how in the events of our lives, up or down they may be, how every one of us can be refined as human beings in that process. I stand before you as a human being most appreciative in whole new ways for the significance of family and friends.
In that regard, I see Belen up there; I see my sons Marshall and Landon; I see my sister Sarah and her husband, Bill; I see my mom, Peg; I see a long list of different friends.
I would thank them for their presence here to share this day. I would thank a long list of friends, whether that's Buff Chace, whom I've known for the whole of my life, or somebody like Joe Taylor, who was my Secretary of Commerce while I was Governor.
In essence, each one of them is an emissary, a representative, to thousands who were so kind to hold me up through the last couple of years and to be instrumental in this election that brought me to this very place. Above all else, though, I am simply humbled to be here, and I look forward to working with each one of you.