Recognition Of The Minority Leader
Mr. President, I can't help but feel honored and humbled by all that has been said here. My mother would have loved it and would have believed it all. I feel totally inadequate to properly respond to much of what has been said. I thank my…
Mr. President, I can't help but feel honored and humbled by all that has been said here. My mother would have loved it and would have believed it all.
I feel totally inadequate to properly respond to much of what has been said. I thank my colleagues one and all, and, of course, the venerable symbol of this institution, Senator Byrd, and his comments, ending as he always does with magnificent quotes, from memory. So maybe it is appropriate that I would begin briefly by telling some of my experiences with Senator Byrd.
When you enter my son's home in Kentucky, on the wall, framed, is a tribute he gave to my first grandchild--a grandson--the week he was born. I was majority leader and came on the floor that Friday, and he asked me if I would be around for a few minutes; he had something he would like to say. It was truly one of the most beautiful things I had ever heard in my life. Maybe it was because I thought my grandson was the most beautiful I had ever seen, but it was so magnificent, and he ended with a quote of how a grandfather wants his grandson to remember him. So it hangs there in a place of great pride. ``Chester Trent Lott, III'' is the title.
Senator Byrd and I have worked together, and of course we have disagreed. There have been magic moments. I remember when I was involved in our little singing group, he came on the floor one day and asked me if I had a little time; he had something he would like to show me. So he went down to his office and he showed me a video of himself at the Grand Ole Opry playing great fiddle. So we were bonded by music, by heritage, by faith, and in so many ways.
I could tell a story about certainly each one of these colleagues here and a lot on the other side and how I have enjoyed being here and have enjoyed my
work, and a lot of it has been on a personal, one-to-one basis. Sometimes, when I really, really cared about something, on a personal basis, for my State or for the Senate or our country, I would go to that Senator's office. I remember one time it took me quite some time to track down Pat Roberts, because he was hiding from me, but I found him.
I remember one time I needed a vote, and I needed some votes on the Democratic side. So the simple thing I have always thought is, you know, go where the ducks are. If you are looking for votes, you have to go talk to them, you have to pursue those votes. So I went to Senator Byrd's office. As always, he graciously welcomed me into the inner sanctum. I think I smelled a cigar, which delighted me, and I sat down, and he listened to me as I made my pitch. I talked about the attributes of this nominee for a very important position and why it was so important, I thought, to the institution and why it was important to me and my State. He listened, he asked a couple of questions, and asked me to repeat the name.
At the end, he said: Well, I think everything will be okay. He didn't say: I will vote for him. He just said: I think everything will be okay. I figured it was good enough and time for me to take my leave, and I did. I talked to my senior colleague, Senator Cochran, and said: What does that mean? He said: I think it will be okay.
So the vote came, and it was okay. He was one of a number of Democrats who did vote for that confirmation. It was just sort of the epitome of Senator Byrd. I respect him as a great Senator, I respect him because of the way he loves this institution, and I respect him as a friend.
I take occasion, when I am in the Senate, sometimes when I am leaving, to go over and say: How are you doing, Senator Byrd? Because I know how he felt about Erma, I know how he loved Billie, and he has so many things that appeal to me and that make him a great man. I single him out now because of the beautiful remarks he just made and because really he is emblematic of the relationships I have had with so many of my colleagues here.
I guess, to tell you the truth, I really was kind of hesitant about this moment and about being here today and what you would say, but it all sounded so good, now I am thinking of changing my mind and maybe announcing for President or something.
But to our leaders, Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader--he and I did work together on many occasions and without a lot of fanfare. I remember we would bring up a bill, and 100 amendments would always appear. I got to thinking it was the same 100, but then he and I would go to work, with me in the leadership of my party and he as the whip on his side, working with Senator Daschle, and we managed to get it done over and over again. We established a relationship of trust and honesty with each other that is so critical.
I think he has the toughest job in the whole city, being the majority leader in the Senate, and not just because I had it but because I got to see what it was all about. The President has the whole administration, the Speaker has the Rules Committee, but the leaders of the Senate, on both sides of the aisle, they lead because of who they are and the power of persuasion they have and the respect for the position they hold. Nothing in the Constitution gives them special powers.
So I appreciate what Harry Reid has said. He has been a friend, he has been a supporter, he has offered me encouragement when I was down and when I was up. He has been very generous and magnanimous in what he has had to say, and I admire him. I wish him only the best because when he succeeds in working and making this institution work and produce a result, most of the time the country succeeds.
To our Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, you knew just a little bit too much about my background, all these personal references, but I appreciate it. It means so much to me. You have been a great friend. We have been in the leadership together, we have kept our word to each other, we have been supportive of each other in tough times and good, and I really enjoyed having you work with me in the leadership when I was leader, and I have been so honored and thrilled to be a part of your leadership team.
I told you that I knew what your job was and I knew what the whip job was, and I would be your whip and I would support you. And I want the record to show here, and for one and all, I think you have been a magnificent leader for our party this year. It has not been easy. It has been tough. Both of you are going to get criticized, but I have been riding shotgun for you, and it has been a great pleasure, my friend. You have done a magnificent job for our party.
I have to recognize our most senior Republican, too, Senator Stevens. He told me yesterday he didn't like my nickname for him, so I am working on a more appropriate one for him, but he has been a good and loyal friend too. When I was a whip in the House and he was a whip here in the Senate, he took me under his wing, even took me on some flights with him. But I admire you so much, Senator Stevens.
And I have to say to my colleague from Mississippi, it has been quite a ride--35 years--but we have enjoyed each other's company. No matter how tough things get, we could always sit down and talk about Ole Miss. I really thought I would be the head coach this year, but that didn't work out. But the thing I will always say about Senator Cochran, and typically of him, after Katrina, which was a seminal event in my life, obviously in the lives of my families and neighbors and friends, and my State, we had so many needs, and Senator Cochran immediately went to work and produced appropriations--more than one--and he got everything we needed. He didn't jump up and down and brag about it.
He helped not only my State but, as Senator Vitter said, Louisiana and the entire gulf region, and here is what really impressed me about it. We all took credit for what he did--I did, our Governor did, our mayors did--and he sat there quietly in the second row in Biloxi, MI, on the 1-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and public official after public official got up and took deep bows for what they had done. Finally, I had all I could stand, and I got up and said: I am glad we all got to take credit. Now it is time we recognize the man on the second row who actually did it. I will forever be grateful for what you did after Hurricane Katrina, which was obviously a very tough event.
To my staff, who are lined up back here--I have a great team. Typically, Senate staffers do so much of the work and we take the credit, but I have been blessed with super staff this year, and there are some former staff members in the balcony. I have a rule in my office that once you work for Trent Lott, you always work for Trent Lott no matter who pays your salary, and, you know, it seems to work. I never let them go. They are always on call and they are always there, and I thank you all for that.
I want to do something, too, that I have done before. We don't do enough to thank our entire Senate family, everybody from the elevator operators to our policemen and the people here. I think the staff of the Senate here on the floor appreciates it. I have always tried to think about you too. One of my speeches about the sun is setting, isn't it time to go home--as most of you know, I was serious when I said I wanted to go home and have supper with my wife Trish, and on occasion, I did it and didn't come back either.
But to all of the staff: Thank you. You have helped in so many ways. Our leaders on the staff--I think of Elizabeth Letchworth, Dave Chiappa, and Marty. They just do great jobs, and so I want to express my appreciation to them.
To my State of Mississippi, they have shown me a lot of leniency. They have honored me, and they have put up with me sometimes, and it has been quite a pleasure to represent that State. I love it, always will, and will always be working for the State.
But especially to my wife Tricia and our two children, Chet and Tyler, and now our four grandchildren, they have been very supportive, and they have always stood by me. My wife has been a lot more than a wife and mother, she has been a real helpmate. I thank them for all they have done.
I do want to say again to the Senate itself, I have learned to love the institution. Senator Byrd occasionally accused me of trying to make the Senate
into a mini-House, and I have denied it, but maybe I was, in my desire for order and neatness. The messiness of the Senate sometimes was hard for me to take.
But I love this place, and I was thinking about it today--the friendships. They are real here, but they don't go away. Some of our colleagues have gone before us whom I have dearly loved as friends and not just colleagues, people such as Connie Mack, Dan Coats, Phil Gramm, and Paul Coverdell was mentioned. These are friendships which will last forever.
Dianne Feinstein. One of my regrets in deciding to retire is that now we have sort of formed a team, and I think maybe she is a little peeved at me that she took a stand with me after I took a stand with her, and now I am going to the house. But this is a great Senator, and she is a symbol of what I hope the Senate will remember to do, and that is to really go the extra mile to be a friend and to have a personal relationship.
She took on the seersucker Thursday. When we lost everything, she was the one who made sure my wife had some glasses for us to drink out of. She didn't do it for publicity, and I never talked about it publicly, but it was a very special gesture.
I thank my colleagues for letting me be in the leadership. Thanks to my colleagues and the American people for allowing me to have some fun while being in the Senate. I commend it to you, for the future. I didn't form the Singing Senators, the quartet, just because I like to sing base or because I enjoyed music, but because I wanted to show that side of the Senate. Could the Senate really have soul? Could the Senate really have music in its heart? As bad as we sounded, there was method in my madness. I also thought it would lead me to find ways to get one of our Senators to vote with us more. I think it got one more vote than we would have otherwise.
But the kilts--you know, just being a little looser I think is a good idea every now and then. I believe whatever you do in your life you should find a way to enjoy it and have fun. I have to say I have had fun in the Senate because I really enjoyed it. That is all there is to it. But I tried to find a way to do some things that made us closer as friends.
I am glad we recorded some history with the Leaders Lecture Series. I urge my colleagues to restart that, bring in experts to talk to us, men and women who led the Senate, who led the country, who know the history of our country and the history of this institution, and give us some opportunity to have an intellectual discussion about what the Senate is, what it has been, and what it can be.
I do hope we will always find a way to be just a little bit family friendly. Remember, we all have families at home, back in our States. Our leaders sometimes could give us a little reward; if we would behave and allow them to get to a vote quicker, maybe we could get home to our families a little quicker.
Senator Byrd mentioned the fact that I have been on mountain tops and down in the valleys. I thought many times about my high school class motto. As class president--we had a class flower, we had a class color, we had a class song, we had a class everything. We had a class motto that has lived with me since those years at Pascagoula High School in 1959. Our class motto was:
The glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time
you fail.
I have had opportunities to fail, and I have had opportunities to persevere, as the people I represent. It has been a great motto, one I have learned to live by.
I am not going to give a long speech today. I quoted a great philosopher about how you should speak on occasions such as this. He said: You should speak low, you should speak slow, and you should be brief--John Wayne. I am going to try to honor that. I am not going to give you a list of achievements because I have been so pleased with what my colleagues have had to say. But among the things I really am proud that we have done in my years in the Senate: We have built our military, we have made it stronger, we gave them better pay, we gave them better retirement benefits. I will always be proud of that. We had tax cuts, tax reform, and strengthened the economy, even things such as safe drinking water. I had communities in my State that literally couldn't drink water out of the faucets. We have improved on that. We had insurance affordability, welfare reform, transportation.
When I announced my retirement a couple of weeks ago, one reporter asked about what was I most proud of. I said: To tell you the truth, I am not the kind of guy who sits around meditating on what I am going to put on a marker somewhere. I am proud of all of it. But I think I am the most proud of the effort we had with colleagues on both sides of the aisle, working very closely with Senator Domenici and Senator Grassley and others. So in my 6\1/2\ years as majority leader we have had balanced budgets, four, and surpluses two of those four. It hasn't happened since 1968, and we are kind of struggling again. That is something we need to do. Fiscal responsibility is a very important part of what we can do for our children and our grandchildren. I hope we will find a way to do that again in the future.
I have one regret. I guess I was part of the problem along the way. The one thing I always hoped we could get done for our children and our grandchildren we have not been able to do, and that is to find a way to preserve, protect, and ensure that Social Security will be there for our children and grandchildren in the way that it is here for us now. I hope we will find a way before it is too late to get that done.
With regard to recommendations, I have no anger, complaints, I have nothing but hope and joy in my heart for the future. I am so appreciative of the way the Senate and the Congress and the American people stepped up and helped us after Hurricane Katrina. But if there were just two things I would like to urge the Senate to do--I have touched on them, but I repeat them now--No. 1, find a way to make sure Senators have a life and have some time with their families. When you lose that, you have lost an important part of those pillars that make us who we are--family and friends, faith and freedom. You have to make sure you pay close attention to that and learn to know each other and know each other's families. It will make us better people.
Then, last, find a way to keep the human side. It has been hard for me, with my Scottish roots, to tell people when I really do appreciate them and love them; to call people when they are celebrating and call them when they are hurting. But when I hurt, myself, I know how much it has meant to me to have some of you call and offer your support and your encouragement. Find a way to do that. It is more important than anything else that happens in the Senate. Keep that personal, human touch.
Always find a way to disagree if you have to, but don't be disagreeable. There has come sort of a meanness, sometimes, that I do not think is befitting of the institution. I hope we will find a way to stay away from that.
Again, I repeat something I said a moment ago. This morning when I was doing my morning Bible devotional, the message that came through to me was one of hope and joy for the future. I look forward to my opportunities after the Senate. I am not going to say a fond farewell because I am not leaving. I will not be here, but my heart will be with you and I will be watching and I will stay in touch for the rest of my life.
Thank you so much for being able to serve with you. I thank you all for what you have had to say today. I do have a quick card in my topic. I do want to talk to you about some folks who will be coming up later this week.
Thank you very much. God bless this institution.
(Applause, Senators rising.)