Latest / BOB DOLE : 1995 Clinton's Comeback / Episode 472 The Fall of Bob Packwood (Part 6) 24 Hours. (C) The Resignation of Senator Bob Packwood. Dole 13
Transcript
- 0:25SPEAKER_05: Crucial spot on the Senate Commerce Committee.
- 0:27SPEAKER_05: He is the 10th ranking senior member of the U.S.
- 0:30SPEAKER_05: Senate, so obviously a very important fellow when it comes to uh various Republican initiatives uh to address welfare reform, tax reform, and and uh other issues.
- 0:40SPEAKER_05: We're keeping a close eye on the floor of the United States Senate, by the way, where Mr.
- 0:43SPEAKER_05: Packwood is expected to talk with his colleagues.
- 0:47SPEAKER_05: Apparently, there was a Republican conference committee uh discussing ostensibly reform measures, uh, but we understand that Mr.
- 0:54SPEAKER_05: Packwood's uh name and issue came up, and uh apparently from that gathering it could be potentially surmised that uh uh Mr.
- 1:01SPEAKER_05: Packwood did not have the votes uh to overcome uh an expulsion from the United States Senate.
- 1:07SPEAKER_05: That would have been the first time in more than a century that a U.S.
- 1:11SPEAKER_05: Senator has been expelled.
- 1:12SPEAKER_05: Now, a Republican senior source saying that uh Senator Bob Packwood is going to resign.
- 1:17SPEAKER_05: We'll keep it posted on developments.
- 1:19SPEAKER_05: Very important issue to the credit markets, no doubt.
- 1:21SPEAKER_05: Uh many seem uh uh to think that uh reform on taxes and the like uh could be uh significantly stymied and uh could have weighed on prices today.
- 1:28SPEAKER_05: Take a look.
- 1:29SPEAKER_05: Fed funds, the Open High Bank lending rate at about five and three-quarters percent.
- 1:32SPEAKER_05: Uh shorter-term paper uh also uh being weighed down today.
- 1:36SPEAKER_05: On this whole issue of uh uh Peckwood's resignation, if that uh indeed proves to be the case, and whether it stymies Republican efforts to get the budget under control.
- 1:44SPEAKER_05: What do you think?
- 1:45SPEAKER_08: I think uh even before this occurred, we were expecting that nothing dramatic would be done in terms of tax reform until after the 1996 presidential election.
- 1:56SPEAKER_08: Because if the Republicans indeed strove for a radical transformation of the tax code, chances are that Mr.
- 2:04SPEAKER_08: Clinton would put his veto to work and stymie the effort.
- 2:08SPEAKER_05: Well, let me let me just give a couple of possibilities.
- 2:11SPEAKER_05: Let's say it does delay reform measures here when the market had been expecting to see some progress made on the budget this year, and let's say we we blow that deadline on the debt ceiling, the government essentially shuts down for a while.
- 2:23SPEAKER_08: How does the market react to those cost currents?
- 2:26SPEAKER_08: I think that uh something substantial in terms of budget deficit reduction is very important if we are to preserve any hope of a Federal Reserve rate cut in 1995.
- 2:38SPEAKER_05: After all, the economy uh could you just hold on, John?
- 2:41SPEAKER_05: We're gonna go live to about that put on the point of the United States Senate.
- 2:43SPEAKER_05: Let's look at the slide.
- 3:09SPEAKER_05: After all, the economy uh could could you just hold on down?
- 3:12SPEAKER_05: We're gonna go live to Bob Packworth on the four United States Senate.
- 3:14SPEAKER_05: Let's listen to it.
- 3:20SPEAKER_04: I respect this institution and my colleagues too much.
- 3:25SPEAKER_04: Too much for that.
- 3:27SPEAKER_04: For 27 years, I've worked alongside Bob Dole, Ted Stevens, a few others from that era, most of all from Mark Hatfield.
- 3:40SPEAKER_04: She was not just a colleague, but a friend of almost 50 years standing.
- 3:47SPEAKER_04: Who I met when I was a teenage young Republican.
- 3:51SPEAKER_04: And he was a bright, young, as yet unelected state legislator, and he says who had turned out to be my teacher, met her friend, fraternity brother.
- 4:03SPEAKER_04: There have been many successes in these 27 years, some failures, some frustrations.
- 4:10SPEAKER_04: Let me remember a few if I could with your indulgence.
- 4:16SPEAKER_04: Hell's Canyon.
- 4:18SPEAKER_04: That great gash in the earth that is the boundary between Idaho and Oregon with the state river running through it.
- 4:26SPEAKER_04: The deepest gorge in the United States.
- 4:29SPEAKER_04: In the late 60s, early 70s, for about six years, we had a battle on trying to stop a dam from being built in the gorge, and at the same time to create a national recreation area.
- 4:46SPEAKER_04: And the humor I see in this as I smile at some of the newspaper stories that I've seen recently about business lobbyists writing legislation.
- 4:55SPEAKER_04: I want you to picture this trip.
- 4:58SPEAKER_04: We're on a raft trip in the river.
- 5:00SPEAKER_04: I'd been invited by a lot of environmentalists, mostly strangers that I did not know.
- 5:03SPEAKER_04: I had not seen the gorge before.
- 5:05SPEAKER_04: They wanted me to see it and become involved in the saving of it.
- 5:12SPEAKER_04: And one night around the campfire, and I believe uh, I believe it was uh Brock Evans, who I think is now at the Audubon Society, but then with Sierra Club.
- 5:22SPEAKER_04: I think it was Brock.
- 5:23SPEAKER_04: We have a highway net as Oregon in Washington.
- 5:27SPEAKER_04: He takes out a laundry pan.
- 5:30SPEAKER_04: He says, I kind of think this is where the boundaries ought to be.
- 5:34SPEAKER_04: He draws it.
- 5:35SPEAKER_04: And somebody that was on the trip says, What about those minerals down there in Idaho?
- 5:39SPEAKER_04: And he looks a good kind of clock and draws it up here.
- 5:44SPEAKER_04: That became the boundaries.
- 5:47SPEAKER_04: The humor was, realizing this is drawn with a marking pen, when you take it to the Legislative Council's office and said, Here, you know how many miles there is in a marker pin?
- 6:00SPEAKER_04: And you say to me, Well, where are these boundaries?
- 6:02SPEAKER_04: And I would have to kind of smile and say, Well, you'd have to call Brock.
- 6:06SPEAKER_04: I'm not quite sure where they go.
- 6:07SPEAKER_04: We saved it.
- 6:09SPEAKER_04: Truck deregulation, an arcane subject, it's probably save the consumers more money and work better than anything in deregulation that we've done.
- 6:17SPEAKER_04: Abortion early on, a lonely fight.
- 6:21SPEAKER_04: I remember in 1970 and 71 when I introduced the first national abortion legislation.
- 6:30SPEAKER_04: Could get no co-sponsor in the Senate.
- 6:34SPEAKER_04: Only one nibble in the House from Pete McCloskey.
- 6:38SPEAKER_04: He did not fight to come on as a sponsor, but nibbled.
- 6:42SPEAKER_04: Two years before Roe versus Wade, those were lonely days, and that is not a fight that is even yet secure.
- 6:52SPEAKER_04: Israel, my trips there, those golden domes, but the fight that so many of us have made year after year to keep that bastion of our heritage safe free, and to this date not guaranteed.
- 7:13SPEAKER_04: Tax reform in 1986.
- 7:17SPEAKER_04: We were up against the verge of failure.
- 7:20SPEAKER_04: The House had passed a midling bill.
- 7:24SPEAKER_04: I was chairman of the finance committee, and every day we were voting away 15 to 20 billion dollars in more loopholes.
- 7:33SPEAKER_04: I finally just adjourned the committee and said, We're done.
- 7:37SPEAKER_04: Remember Bill Armstrong saying we're done for the day.
- 7:39SPEAKER_04: I said, No, we're done for the session.
- 7:41SPEAKER_04: We're not going to have any more meetings.
- 7:43SPEAKER_04: Bill Diefendurfer and I, my chief counsel, went out to the Irish Times and had a famous two pitchers of beer.
- 7:50SPEAKER_04: Those were in the days when I drank.
- 7:51SPEAKER_04: I quit drinking years ago.
- 7:54SPEAKER_04: But I can see why they call it courage.
- 7:56SPEAKER_04: By the time we'd finished the second pitcher, get drafted out on a napkin at the Alfons.
- 8:06SPEAKER_04: And really said, okay, if they want tax reform, we'll give them tax reform.
- 8:12SPEAKER_04: Here is an example of this body that can move when it wants to move.
- 8:21SPEAKER_04: From the time the committee first saw the bill until they passed it, 12 days.
- 8:28SPEAKER_04: Pat Hornia Hinn was a critical flagrant in that, as six of us met every morning at 8:30 before the committee meeting.
- 8:36SPEAKER_04: Passed the Senate within a month.
- 8:38SPEAKER_04: So when people say this body cannot move, this body can.
- 9:14SPEAKER_04: We make more mistakes in haste than we lose opportunities in delay.
- 9:21SPEAKER_04: If something should pass, it will pass.
- 9:27SPEAKER_04: That's not a long time in the history of the Republic.
- 9:31SPEAKER_04: But too often, in haste, we pass things and have to repent.
- 9:40SPEAKER_04: So for whatever advice I would have, I would hope we would not make things too easy in this body.
- 9:52SPEAKER_04: Tuition tax credits, uh, a failure.
- 9:56SPEAKER_04: Pat Moyne and I, Pat Moyne and I introduced the first bill in 1977.
- 10:01SPEAKER_04: We've been introducing it ever since.
- 10:03SPEAKER_04: Its day may come, may be here, but one of the great moments of humor, you have to picture this situation, is the Carter administration.
- 10:14SPEAKER_04: They're terribly opposed to this tuition tax credit bill.
- 10:17SPEAKER_04: Secretary Calafano had testified against it twice in the Ways and Means Committee meeting.
- 10:25SPEAKER_04: Came to a finance committee hearing, and Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs, Dick Warden, came to testify.
- 10:32SPEAKER_04: He'd previously been with the United Auto Workers and was hired on as the lobbyist basically for Health and Human Services, AGW, as we called it then.
- 10:41SPEAKER_04: He was about 30 seconds into his testimony, and Senator Moynihan leans forward and he said, uh, Mr.
- 10:48SPEAKER_04: Warden, why are you uh why are you here?
- 10:52SPEAKER_04: Why are you here?
- 10:54SPEAKER_04: Mr.
- 10:54SPEAKER_04: Warden goes by uh I I I am the Assistant Secretary uh for legislative affairs for the Department of Health Education and Welfare, and I'm here representing the Secretary of the Administration.
- 11:07SPEAKER_04: And Pat goes, no, no, Mr.
- 11:10SPEAKER_04: Warden, I didn't do the emphasis right.
- 11:13SPEAKER_04: Why are you here?
- 11:17SPEAKER_04: Now, Absis.
- 11:19SPEAKER_04: Secretary Calipano testified twice in opposition to this bill in the House, in this committee, where there's a more favorable climate.
- 11:28SPEAKER_04: Where is the secretary today?
- 11:29SPEAKER_04: Mr.
- 11:30SPEAKER_04: Warden goes, Well, uh um uh I I think he's in Cleveland speaking.
- 11:36SPEAKER_04: Pat goes, well, where is the undersecretary?
- 11:39SPEAKER_04: Why isn't he here today representing the administration?
- 11:42SPEAKER_04: And Mr.
- 11:42SPEAKER_04: Warden goes, Well, um I'm I'm not uh I'm not sure.
- 11:46SPEAKER_04: And Pat's voice is rising.
- 11:48SPEAKER_04: He says, Where is the assistant secretary for education?
- 11:52SPEAKER_04: Mr.
- 11:52SPEAKER_04: Warden, I was in the Kennedy administration when that position was created, and I can tell you that man has utterly nothing to do at all.
- 12:00SPEAKER_04: He could be here testifying today.
- 12:03SPEAKER_04: And Mr.
- 12:04SPEAKER_04: Warden, I'll tell you where they are.
- 12:06SPEAKER_04: They're up on the eighth floor of their building, cowering under their desks, afraid to come forth and testify on the most important piece of education legislation that's been introduced in this century, and Mr.
- 12:16SPEAKER_04: Warden, that is why you are here.
- 12:20SPEAKER_04: Now, please go on.
- 12:21SPEAKER_04: And poor old Mr.
- 12:22SPEAKER_04: Warden barely went on, but had more humor and education from Pat than probably anybody here.
- 12:30SPEAKER_04: Friendships beyond uh beyond count.
- 12:34SPEAKER_04: The camaraderies under I look at John Chaby sitting back here, my squash partner.
- 12:40SPEAKER_04: His sec his secretary, but every three months, uh, kicks out our squash matches over 15 years, 202 to 199.
- 12:51SPEAKER_04: And his secretary not only kicks out the matches, but the games and the scores within the matches.
- 12:57SPEAKER_04: John every now and then presents it to me.
- 13:00SPEAKER_04: Back we go, back and forth, back and forth, as evenly masked as you can be.
- 13:10SPEAKER_04: Some here, Senator Byrdwood, Senator X would, some in my age group.
- 13:19SPEAKER_04: Remember uh General MacArthur's final speech at West Point.
- 13:24SPEAKER_04: Duty to honor the country.
- 13:31SPEAKER_04: It is my duty to resign.
- 13:36SPEAKER_04: It is the honorable thing to do for this country for the Senate.
- 13:45SPEAKER_04: So I now announce that I will resign from the Senate.
- 13:50SPEAKER_04: And I leave this institution, not with malice, but with love.
- 14:00SPEAKER_04: Good luck.
- 14:02SPEAKER_04: Godspeed.
- 14:11SPEAKER_02: Mr.
- 14:11SPEAKER_02: President, Chair recognizes a senator from Oregon.
- 14:17SPEAKER_02: Mr.
- 14:17SPEAKER_03: President, the political nightmare that has faced my colleague now for almost three years is coming to an end.
- 14:27SPEAKER_03: And I think in an ordeal of this type, we tend to focus on the negative or the causes for leading to resignation.
- 14:38SPEAKER_03: But as he has briefly reflected on the many accomplishments that he made during his service not only here in the Senate, but services that he rendered to the state of Oregon as a political leader, as a legislator.
- 14:54SPEAKER_03: I'd like to accentuate the positive.
- 14:59SPEAKER_03: I must say that in my many years of teaching political science, I never had a more brilliant student than Senator Packwood.
- 15:08SPEAKER_03: Came to Willamette University as a freshman, and he immediately established himself as one who is knowledgeable about politics and was willing to engage in politics and to invite other people to be involved in politics, even on the campus.
- 15:27SPEAKER_03: I had been in the state legislature for about six years and had known his father, who was one of the chief lobbyists in the legislature representing the utilities industry.
- 15:38SPEAKER_03: And if Fred Peckwood told you something, you knew it was true and you knew it was provable.
- 15:45SPEAKER_03: And he established himself as one of the outstanding lobbyists in that legislature.
- 15:51SPEAKER_03: I knew his mother.
- 15:54SPEAKER_03: And therefore I speak, even though there may be only but ten years separating our ages, as sort of a long friend, perhaps partially a mentor, and most of all, someone whose friendship I treasure.
- 16:15SPEAKER_03: Mr.
- 16:16SPEAKER_03: President, when young Bob Packwood uh became engaged in political action that was leading to his political career as elective officer, he launched a whole new style of campaigning in my state.
- 16:32SPEAKER_03: Best described as a slogan, People for Packwood.
- 16:38SPEAKER_03: And he didn't have to pay a high price to some kind of a public relations firm to come up with that kind of a focus that epitomized his whole style of campaigning.
- 16:49SPEAKER_03: He thought it out.
- 16:51SPEAKER_03: He demonstrated again a brilliant mind in his political activities.
- 16:57SPEAKER_03: We were going through one of those wrestling matches in the Republican Party that we're still going through, and perhaps we'll always go through.
- 17:05SPEAKER_03: And that is the wrestling between the so-called liberal wing and the conservative wing.
- 17:13SPEAKER_03: And at that particular time, the so-called party machinery was pretty much in the hands of the conservatives in our state, and the moderates felt that they were not being well represented within the party structure.
- 17:24SPEAKER_03: So Senator Packwood at that time organized what was called the Dorchester Conference.
- 17:31SPEAKER_03: And in the Dorchester Conference, he invited many Republicans who represented the middle, the center, and said we have to epitomize a pluralism of our party, both in our heritage and in our practice in current times.
- 17:48SPEAKER_03: And he launched that forum, which is still going on in my state after all these years, almost 30 years.
- 18:00SPEAKER_03: So I say to my colleague, that you have your footprints, you have your imprint of legislation in the political life of our state, and your record can never be changed on that basis of your contribution.
- 18:17SPEAKER_03: I'd like to come then to that very dramatic moment when Senator Pack Wood decided that he would venture forth as a Republican candidate against the impregnable, the undefeated Senator Wayne Morse for the United States Senate.
- 18:33SPEAKER_03: He was a sacrificial lamb.
- 18:36SPEAKER_03: He was one who was going to fill out the ballot because we wanted to have a Republican candidate in every position on that ballot.
- 18:47SPEAKER_03: And I remember that campaign very well.
- 18:52SPEAKER_03: Because I had known Senator Morris as a Republican.
- 18:56SPEAKER_03: I had campaigned for Senator Morris as a Republican.
- 19:01SPEAKER_03: And I knew Senator Morris's great ability.
- 19:04SPEAKER_03: And I still respect the contribution that former Senator Morris made to this country and particular areas of peace and war.
- 19:16SPEAKER_03: But I remember too that when Senator Packwood suggested a debate with Senator Morse, and we all know, for those of us who remember him, that he could make you believe black was white, white was black, in terms of his eloquence and his tenacity as a debater.
- 19:36SPEAKER_03: He was without care in the United States Senate from those comments made not by Republican members but by Democratic members as a alike.
- 19:48SPEAKER_03: And so Senator Packwood not only suggested but challenged him to a debate.
- 19:54SPEAKER_03: Well, that's not terribly dramatic in a sense, but Senator Packwood said, and we will only have two minutes to answer a question.
- 20:06SPEAKER_03: Now, any of us who were friends and knew Senator Morse, he couldn't tell you what the weather was outside in two minutes.
- 20:13SPEAKER_03: Because he had attacked the subject from its historic context, he'd attacked the subject from its social context, from its political, from its economic.
- 20:21SPEAKER_03: He'd give you the whole follow-whack, so to speak.
- 20:24SPEAKER_03: And an hour and a half later you got the answer.
- 20:28SPEAKER_03: And that was a very dramatic debate because it was televised, but the television people didn't put just the television camera on the face.
- 20:37SPEAKER_03: They realized that what was happening here was a defeat in the making.
- 20:43SPEAKER_03: Because on the sides of the podium, Senator Morse's hands began to shake without certainty, realizing he was being cut off before he ever got to the second sentence of an answer.
- 20:56SPEAKER_03: And it was probably one of the most historic, if not the most historic, political debate in my state's history.
- 21:04SPEAKER_03: And at that point, the pundits were all saying, aha, this young man coming along challenging this veteran and sage of Oregon politics, being having been both a Republican and a Democrat, and being elected the United States Senate Senate as a Republican and as a Democrat both.
- 21:24SPEAKER_03: And that launched Senator Packwood's career here in the Senate.
- 21:30SPEAKER_03: He has many credits in his record.
- 21:34SPEAKER_03: And it doesn't mean that Senator Packwood and I have agreed on every issue.
- 21:38SPEAKER_03: He's pro-choice, I'm pro-life.
- 21:42SPEAKER_03: That has divided us in terms of an issue, but not in terms of a friendship.
- 21:49SPEAKER_03: He has respected my position, I respected his position.
- 21:53SPEAKER_03: And that was, again, one of the characteristics of Senator Packwood throughout his political life in my state and in the United States Senate.
- 22:00SPEAKER_03: He was not a prisoner to dogma.
- 22:03SPEAKER_05: He will look you are uh and have been listening to uh Senator Mark Hatfield, Senator Bob Packwood's Oregon colleague in the United States Senate.
- 22:12SPEAKER_03: He will look at the issue, he'd make his assessment, and he'd take his position.
- 22:18SPEAKER_03: And I want to say with all due respect to all of my colleagues that I've served with today and those who have served with over the almost thirty Years that I have been here, I have known no that is his peer in taking a complex issue such as a tax package, dissecting it, analyzing it, explaining it, so that the average citizen out there watching the proceedings could understand.
- 22:43SPEAKER_03: He has demonstrated that time and time again.
- 22:48SPEAKER_03: I not only give him that accolade, he has certainly been a role model for me to be more brief than I have a tendency to be, having grown up in a profession that had a 50-minute lecture.
- 23:03SPEAKER_03: So I just want to say to my dear colleague, I wanted to take just a few moments to focus on a record that cannot be expunged, and that in the total man and the total person and the total picture, I hope we will be not only considerate of that record and recognize that record, but also recognize that he is a fellow human being.
- 23:36SPEAKER_03: And even though the media and the public often treats us as objects, we are human beings with emotions and with feelings.
- 23:47SPEAKER_03: And I want to say, as a fellow human being, I rise to give these few remarks with a sad heart.
- 23:54SPEAKER_03: For I hurt with Senator Packlin in this particular moment.
- 24:01SPEAKER_03: And I count it a privilege to not only have him a friend for this length of time, but look forward to many more years of friendship.
- 24:09SPEAKER_03: And in closing, I want to say this lady sitting next to Senator Packlin.
- 24:16SPEAKER_03: Elaine Franklin has been his right art through battles and victories and disappointments.
- 24:24SPEAKER_03: And when I was looking at a rather dismal situation in my last election, she took her leave time in her accumulated vacation and came out to the state of Oregon and engaged full-time in my campaign for re-election.
- 24:47SPEAKER_03: And even though that was a close election, I have to pay tribute to Elaine Franklin for her role in helping to make it a victory.
- 24:55SPEAKER_03: And I think that is part and again of the person picking key people, able people, as he did in Elaine Franklin.
- 25:13SPEAKER_02: Chair recognizes the majority leader.
- 25:23SPEAKER_09: I think the Bob Packwood we heard today is a Bob Packwood that many of us have known over the years.
- 25:29SPEAKER_09: I remember in 1968, Bob Packwood calling me.
- 25:33SPEAKER_09: We're both running for the Senate for the first time, and he called me, I think, late at night, early in the morning.
- 25:41SPEAKER_09: We talked about each winning and about coming to the United States Senate.
- 25:46SPEAKER_09: I came from the House, he came from state political office.
- 25:54SPEAKER_09: We ended up on the same committee, the Finance Committee.
- 25:59SPEAKER_09: Very important committee.
- 26:02SPEAKER_09: Had a number of outstanding chairmen.
- 26:07SPEAKER_09: Senator Long was there for a long time.
- 26:11SPEAKER_09: And I was there for a short time.
- 26:15SPEAKER_09: And then Senator Benson, Senator Moyan, Senator Packwood.
- 26:21SPEAKER_09: And I want to underscore what my senior senator just stated, Morgan.
- 26:29SPEAKER_09: I don't know of anybody who's a quicker study and can explain in detail so that I can understand it and others can understand it, whether it's Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, capital gains, whatever it is, anything in the jurisdiction of the Finance Committee.
- 26:48SPEAKER_09: I believe my colleagues on either side of the aisle would acknowledge that Bob Packwood has no peer.
- 26:59SPEAKER_09: And I can think of many, many times when he was able to bring us together.
- 27:05SPEAKER_09: And I'm not talking about bringing Republicans, but Democrats and Republicans together because of his explanation, illustration, forceful argument.
- 27:18SPEAKER_09: And we knew that he knew the issue.
- 27:25SPEAKER_09: And we've served together, not always agreeing on every issue, but served together over the years and been good friends over the years.
- 27:34SPEAKER_09: And I know some may be pleased today and some may not be pleased.
- 27:39SPEAKER_09: But I believe that Senator Packwood, when he said duty, honor, and country, means precisely that.
- 27:50SPEAKER_09: He has great respect for the Senate.
- 27:52SPEAKER_09: He's always had great respect for the Senate.
- 27:58SPEAKER_09: And as soon as there report from the Ethics Committee yesterday, there are all kinds of questions, speculation, what will happen now.
- 28:09SPEAKER_09: I believe Senator Packwood has made the right decision.
- 28:15SPEAKER_09: I believe a protracted debate on the Senate floor.
- 28:22SPEAKER_09: May not have changed anything.
- 28:26SPEAKER_09: I must say I think a very severe punishment.
- 28:31SPEAKER_09: I remember one case here with the senator charged with certain things.
- 28:40SPEAKER_09: Came to the Senate floor six months after it was reported by the Ethics Committee.
- 28:45SPEAKER_09: But not after a trial and not after a conviction on three counts.
- 28:58SPEAKER_09: But having said that, I think Senator Packwood has made the correct decision.
- 29:03SPEAKER_09: It's not easy.
- 29:06SPEAKER_09: It hasn't been easy.
- 29:11SPEAKER_09: It's always easy when you're criticizing, but it's not as easy when you're taking it.
- 29:15SPEAKER_09: We all know that.
- 29:16SPEAKER_09: We've been on both sides.
- 29:19SPEAKER_09: I must say I've watched Senator Packwood for the last uh twenty four hours.
- 29:27SPEAKER_09: And wondered myself how he was able to carry on.
- 29:34SPEAKER_09: Then again, I know Bob Packwood.
- 29:37SPEAKER_09: And this is not the end of Bob Packwood's career.
- 29:43SPEAKER_09: He'll continue to make a difference in the lives of many, many Americans.
- 29:50SPEAKER_09: He only cited a few things.
- 29:52SPEAKER_09: We could cite pages and pages of legislation that bears his name or bears his name along with colleagues on the other side.
- 30:01SPEAKER_09: Bipartisan, nonpartisan, in some cases partisan.
- 30:07SPEAKER_09: Hard worker, nobody ever suggested otherwise.
- 30:11SPEAKER_09: Loyal to his party, loyal to his constituents, and loyal to his leaders.
- 30:23SPEAKER_09: So I would just say that.
- 30:29SPEAKER_09: Obviously, he deserves some time to get his everything in order.
- 30:37SPEAKER_09: It takes a little while around here to do things.
- 30:40SPEAKER_09: I'm not certain.
- 30:41SPEAKER_09: He didn't state an effective date.
- 30:46SPEAKER_09: But I would guess my colleagues would say some reasonable time would be allowed.
- 30:54SPEAKER_09: Even the sharpest critics.
- 31:11SPEAKER_09: And add it all up.
- 31:16SPEAKER_09: And think about the many times he stood on this floor in this place right here.
- 31:25SPEAKER_09: Offering amendments or debating amendments that affected somebody somewhere, some child or children or homeless or whatever it might be, whatever the issue might be.
- 31:37SPEAKER_09: I would just say he's been an outstanding legislator, an outstanding United States Senator, and someone whose legacy will be around for a long, long time, and a friend of mine.
- 31:56SPEAKER_07: The chair recognizes the Senator from Arizona.
- 32:00unknown: Mr.
- 32:00SPEAKER_07: President, I want to speak briefly about our colleague and my friend, Bob Packwood.
- 32:05SPEAKER_07: I will not comment about the circumstances that have compelled Senator Packwood to resign his office.
- 32:11SPEAKER_07: I will not speak about the merits of the case against Senator Packwood.
- 32:15SPEAKER_07: I can neither reproach the Ethics Committee nor endorse their decision.
- 32:19SPEAKER_07: I was spared the burden of adjudicating this matter, and it would be not fair for me to criticize the result of their three-year investigation.
- 32:27SPEAKER_07: I know the members of the committee, and I know them to be decent and principled senators who would not take the responsibilities of this matter lightly.
- 32:36SPEAKER_07: But Pop Packwood is my friend.
- 32:39SPEAKER_07: I am proud to call him my friend, and I cannot bring myself to say that his departure from the Senate is welcome.
- 32:46SPEAKER_07: I surely know less about the case against the Senator than do the members of the Ethics Committee, and I know that they would not reach their decision, absent their confidence that the decision was just, but I cannot accept it with anything other than profound regret.
- 33:02SPEAKER_07: Nor can I comfort myself with an appreciation that the Senate has in this moment comprehended something about relationships between men and women that heretofore male senators are supposed to have failed to comprehend.
- 33:16SPEAKER_07: I did not feel that this was the case prior to the Ethics Committee ruling, and I do not think we deserve to be congratulated for suddenly evolving into more sensitive beings.
- 33:27SPEAKER_07: I cannot claim that I have treated every human being I've encountered in my life fairly or generously, but I am confident that whether I have treated a person well or ill, it had nothing to do with their gender, and I resent assumptions that all men in this institution require an object lesson made of Bob Packwood so that we might learn to treat one half of humanity with dignity.
- 33:51SPEAKER_07: Thus, I cannot quietly or publicly, genuinely or falsely, say that Bob Packwood's departure was a necessary price for us to become better people.
- 34:00SPEAKER_07: We could all become better people, but I seriously doubt the Senate's loss of Bob Packwood will advance us toward that goal.
- 34:08SPEAKER_07: Mr.
- 34:08SPEAKER_07: President, let me also ask my colleagues to spare a little consideration for the whole of Bob Packwood's life and career in this institution before we lapse into self-congratulation.
- 34:21SPEAKER_07: And let us also recall biblical injunctions concerning forgiveness and understanding.
- 34:27SPEAKER_07: No matter what our view of this matter are, we can all recognize that this is a sad, a profoundly sad moment for Bob Packwood and for the Senate.
- 34:38SPEAKER_07: Let us not congratulate nor celebrate a thing today.
- 34:42SPEAKER_07: This is a moment for grieving.
- 34:45SPEAKER_07: Bob Packwood is a man of great industry, intellect, and what used to be called civic-mindedness.
- 34:50SPEAKER_07: He is a patriot, a devoted servant of his country.
- 34:53SPEAKER_07: The almanac of American politics accurately described him as one of the most legislatively accomplished of senators with a distinguished with a distinctive and consistent set of principles.
- 35:05SPEAKER_07: He has back for a quarter century.
- 35:07SPEAKER_07: Every member of this body knows the extent of his accomplishments.
- 35:11SPEAKER_07: They are vast even when compared to the records of other senior members of the Senate.
- 35:15SPEAKER_07: On so many of the issues before the Finance Committee, which he so ably chaired, Bob Packwood was considered the committee's leading expert.
- 35:24SPEAKER_07: He has been for many years one of the Senate's most effective advocates for less regulation, freer trade, a simpler and less burdensome tax code.
- 35:33SPEAKER_07: I know that it pains him greatly to leave the Senate now that we are seriously addressing two problems to which he has devoted his considerable energy and ability for years: welfare reform and saving Medicare.
- 35:46SPEAKER_07: Both these urgent and complex tasks will be far more difficult to resolve absent Bob Packwood's leadership.
- 35:54SPEAKER_07: But his broad intellect and keen sense of service would not allow Bob Packwood to limit his work to only those issues before the Finance Committee.
- 36:02SPEAKER_07: They led him to participate centrally in the debates over all the major issues of our time.
- 36:07SPEAKER_07: From the environment to foreign policy, Bob Packwood was a statesman, a distinguished statesman.
- 36:13SPEAKER_07: Bob is right, there is life after the Senate, and as he builds a satisfying, challenging, and interesting new life, which I am confident he will do, Bob can look back at his 27 years of Senate service with enormous pride and satisfaction.
- 36:29SPEAKER_07: He has contributed more than most to the welfare of his countrymen.
- 36:34SPEAKER_07: He will have his regrets, as will we all, but he cannot but feel that his country is a better place for his service to it.
- 36:41SPEAKER_07: I commend him greatly for that service.
- 36:44SPEAKER_07: I grieve for him today.
- 36:46SPEAKER_07: I regret this moment's arrival.
- 36:48SPEAKER_07: I wish him good fortune and say again, without reservation, I'm proud to call Bob Packwood my friend.
- 37:00SPEAKER_11: Senator from Wyoming.
- 37:01SPEAKER_11: Mr.
- 37:02SPEAKER_11: President, Bob Packwood will soon be absent from us.
- 37:09SPEAKER_11: He is also my friend.
- 37:12SPEAKER_11: He will always be my friend.
- 37:16SPEAKER_11: He was chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee and helped to recruit me for this Senate post early in the year 1978.
- 37:25SPEAKER_11: He has been loyal, steadfast, and true.
- 37:30SPEAKER_11: And I trust that I was able to return that to him in earnest friendship.
- 37:36SPEAKER_11: I prepared some notes.
- 37:38SPEAKER_11: You know, many of you know me, and when I have really something to say, I write it down in my own way.
- 37:46SPEAKER_11: No staff, no wing in it, which has always gotten me in a lot of trouble.
- 37:53SPEAKER_11: But I just want to share a few things that come from deep inside.
- 37:58SPEAKER_11: And they they're brief, but they will match some of the things said by my dear friend Mark Hatfield and dear friend John Cain.
- 38:08SPEAKER_11: This remarkable career of Bob Packwood's public service will end.
- 38:14SPEAKER_11: The political story will close on its final chapter, but other aspects of his life will go on.
- 38:23SPEAKER_11: And we must not, we cannot, and we should not forget the extraordinary accomplishments and successes of a superior legislator simply because of the maelstrom of negatives that have poured forth from some who have chosen to act as judge, jury, and executioner at so many levels of our society.
- 38:51SPEAKER_11: He was the man who always fought so hard for women and their rights.
- 38:58SPEAKER_11: No one can challenge that statement.
- 39:02SPEAKER_11: He was the man who worked doggedly for civil rights and fairness and empowerment for the lesser people of society.
- 39:10SPEAKER_11: He was the man, often the only man, who carried the banner for women's reproductive rights when others were unwilling to unfurl it.
- 39:21SPEAKER_11: He was the man who fought for job equity and the crashing in of the glass ceiling for women in this country.
- 39:30SPEAKER_11: Every single thoughtful activist woman's group was once on his side through thick or thin, at least until recent times.
- 39:43SPEAKER_11: Then many of them consciously and callously abandoned him, not willing to consider even a shred of evidence portraying, quote, his side, unquote, of the story.
- 39:55SPEAKER_11: Now please make no mistake here.
- 39:58SPEAKER_11: I am not defending what Bob Packwood did or did not do.
- 40:03SPEAKER_11: I do not know the circumstances of all of that, only what I have read and heard.
- 40:10SPEAKER_11: And having practiced law in real life for 18 years, it is my experience to pay guarded attention to what I read or hear.
- 40:22SPEAKER_11: Justice, freedom, and due process depend on various rules of procedure and process.
- 40:32SPEAKER_11: There are few of such rules here in the Senate or in the court of public opinion.
- 40:38SPEAKER_11: The Ethics Committee was of the Senate was established partially to avoid the travesty of a trial by the media.
- 40:47SPEAKER_11: That mission has now been seriously thwarted and twisted.
- 40:52SPEAKER_11: None of this recent crisis needed to have come to pass.
- 40:57SPEAKER_11: I was serving as assistant leader of our party during a late night session in the month of November 1993.
- 41:06SPEAKER_11: On the floor we were debating, and there was great public discussion of the issue of exercising the power of subpoena, of one's most intimate personal recollections, one's own diary.
- 41:23SPEAKER_11: When Bob Packwood appeared before Senator Bob Dole and myself in Bob's office with his written resignation in his hand, signed by him, and to be effective at 2 a.m.
- 41:39SPEAKER_11: the following early morning, just hours away, three hours away.
- 41:47SPEAKER_11: It was apparently not enough.
- 41:51SPEAKER_11: For that very next morning, the Ethics Committee delivered certain files and records and pleadings to the Justice Department for further proceedings as to possible criminal matters, while the committee had made no previous public reference to any such criminal conduct.
- 42:16SPEAKER_11: Bob Packwood at that moment of time said that he then had no choice but to remain in the Senate in order to fight the charges from the firmest of battlegrounds.
- 42:29SPEAKER_11: I remained terribly disturbed about the entire process.
- 42:33SPEAKER_11: These are not personal reflections upon members or any particular member of the Ethics Committee, I assure you.
- 42:40SPEAKER_11: Oh, yes, yes, I know.
- 42:42SPEAKER_11: We should brush all that past brooding aside because the feeding frenzy is now on and the waters are blood flecked and teeming with scissor teeth piranhas.
- 42:57SPEAKER_11: Where I personally get into a lot of trouble in life is because of a simple basic philosophy ingrained in me by a grandfather who practiced law and a father who practiced law, who taught me the power and worth of that craft, and two sons who come now after me are all practicing the very special profession of law.
- 43:17SPEAKER_11: The best advice was if anyone goes to jail, be sure it's your client.
- 43:23SPEAKER_11: I liked that advice.
- 43:24SPEAKER_11: I cherished that advice.
- 43:27SPEAKER_11: But I learned then, and it will always be so that there are always two sides.
- 43:33SPEAKER_11: Always, always, we have heard one.
- 43:39SPEAKER_11: There is such a thing as due process and fairness that has not yet been completed.
- 43:46SPEAKER_11: There are some stirring words in our nation's founding documents and in all laws that take their breath of life from those documents.
- 43:55SPEAKER_11: And what comes from them requires, no, it it it certainly demands that we be able to confront our accusers, that we be able to review and examine all papers and documents and witnesses that the quote prosecution unquote may deem relevant in the case.
- 44:17SPEAKER_11: We know that the process of selecting evidence that is only relevant or not relevant does not rest with the parties, but with An unbiased finder of fact.
- 44:27SPEAKER_11: We cherish the law that any accuser must at some point in some proceedings, somewhere within the system of justice within this country, be required to raise their right hand and swear to God or make other affirmation that what they are telling is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
- 44:48SPEAKER_11: And that person then, after affirming such an oath, is to be subjected to cross-examination based upon the rules of evidence and due process.
- 45:00SPEAKER_11: It is my understanding that six of the 19 accusers of Senator Packwood have not yet been identified in the media and do not wish, even at this time, to be publicly identified.
- 45:14SPEAKER_11: Apparently they are to remain, quote, unidentified even to the extent of retaining that status as the committee releases the record of the hearings or the proceedings.
- 45:27SPEAKER_11: Senator Packwood indicates that a number of witnesses have come forward on his behalf because they have read about it or suddenly learned of the complaints against him on television or in the press.
- 45:38SPEAKER_11: Additional witnesses are not going to be able to come forth as long as complainants remain unidentified.
- 45:47SPEAKER_11: Perhaps there is some forum yet for Senator Bob Packwood to state his side.
- 45:51SPEAKER_11: That will be his choice, not mine.
- 45:55SPEAKER_11: So Bob Packwood is leaving our midst.
- 45:59SPEAKER_11: We know not what the future will hold for him, but he is a fighter.
- 46:04SPEAKER_11: He has fought for women and their rights.
- 46:07SPEAKER_11: He has fought for the lesser in our society and for their rights.
- 46:11SPEAKER_11: He is a true civil libertarian, and his public life should not be judged in parts, but in some total.
- 46:19SPEAKER_11: He has conquered an affliction that surely contributed to his downfall, alcoholism.
- 46:25SPEAKER_11: These last recent years have obviously been nightmarish for him, and obviously also for his accusers.
- 46:33SPEAKER_11: That is true.
- 46:35SPEAKER_11: But the good book speaks of judgment and justice and truth and forbearance and tolerance and forgiveness, and we might draw on some of those timeless strengths and attributes in judging this man.
- 46:49SPEAKER_11: Very few of us in public service have had a life unexamined.
- 46:56SPEAKER_11: But now that will be so to ever more degree.
- 47:00SPEAKER_11: But how far back in life do we then go?
- 47:04SPEAKER_11: I've said several times, the Al Simpson who was on federal probation at the age of 18 is not the same Al Simpson standing here.
- 47:15SPEAKER_11: The Al Simpson who was thrown in the clink at 21 for clubbing a guy around in the streets of Laramie is not the same Al Simpson standing here, although the traits are still burning down there.
- 47:28SPEAKER_11: And uh, and I'll never forget, even Ann, who I was going with, would never raise the bail that night.
- 47:35SPEAKER_11: But we still married.
- 47:36SPEAKER_11: We've been together for 41 years.
- 47:40SPEAKER_11: How far back do we go?
- 47:42SPEAKER_11: Anyone want to go back to their life to 1969 to see what we were up to?
- 47:47SPEAKER_11: Check with me.
- 47:49SPEAKER_11: Come in and let's have a visit about that.
- 47:52SPEAKER_11: So if we in the Senate are to receive the same treatment, this is what the public is demanding of us, that we should have the same treatment no more and no less than our fellow men and women, then pray tell me why the statute of limitations in any jurisdiction in America is no longer than six years for offenses far more serious in nature than the ones charged against our brother from Oregon.
- 48:21SPEAKER_11: That may be very difficult for some to understand, but it is the truth.
- 48:27SPEAKER_11: The statute of limitations is six years in the most lenient of jurisdictions, and an average of three years in most other jurisdictions, and yet they have plumbed the scraps of life of Bob Packwood back to the year 1969.
- 48:44SPEAKER_11: Where does it all end?
- 48:47SPEAKER_11: That would be a good question to ask ourselves, and many surely won't do it in any public forum.
- 48:53SPEAKER_11: But when we return to the comfort and solace of our own homes this night, visiting with loved ones and friends, and reflect upon the sadness and tragedy of Senator Bob Packwood and of the victims, and I mean that, what can be asked and inquired of the accusers can also be the nature of an inquiry to the accused, which is this how would you feel if this were happening to you?
- 49:27SPEAKER_11: That is not a diversion, that is not a clever phrase, that is not corny, it is not naive, it is not uncaring, it is not unresponsive, it is not the mumbling of a bald, emaciated 64-year-old senator from Wyoming who just doesn't get it.
- 49:49SPEAKER_11: I've heard all that guff before.
- 49:53SPEAKER_11: It is just something we should not forget in life as we are pushed forward in the undertow of the immeasurable tide of the information age of a free society.
- 50:04SPEAKER_11: The print and electronic media now playing all of the varied roles heretofore to be performed only to administrative and court tribunals.
- 50:16SPEAKER_11: There was a reason for the Ethics Committee.
- 50:19SPEAKER_11: It was to avoid public hanging, it was to avoid frontier justice, it was to avoid vigilante justice, if you will.
- 50:33SPEAKER_11: That is one of the reasons why it was created.
- 50:36SPEAKER_11: Something has surely gone awry.
- 50:40SPEAKER_11: And it will be up to those of us remaining in the Senate to set the course anew.
- 50:46SPEAKER_11: And to my friend Bob Packwood, God bless you, Godspeed, and you are loved by many.
- 50:53SPEAKER_11: Thank you, Mr.
- 50:57SPEAKER_12: President.
- 50:59SPEAKER_12: Gallery uh will suspend the sergeant of arms is noted to restore order if there are outbreaks in the gallery.
- 51:08SPEAKER_13: Mr.
- 51:08SPEAKER_13: President.
- 51:09SPEAKER_13: Senator from Rhode Island.
- 51:10SPEAKER_13: Mr.
- 51:10SPEAKER_13: President, uh, I am not going to review the bidding of why we're here this afternoon, uh, but I do want to express my sentiments toward Bob Packwood, for whom I have the greatest respect and affection.
- 51:24SPEAKER_13: As Senator Packwood mentioned, we have played 400 squash matches over the past 12 years.
- 51:31SPEAKER_13: 400 times we've met at the squash club to play.
- 51:35SPEAKER_13: And in the game of squash, many may not know how it works, but you're very dependent upon your opponent for calling whether a shot was fair or not.
- 51:45SPEAKER_13: And in those 400 matches, never once, never once did I have any the slightest inclination or reason to call, to say that what the call that Bob Packwood would made was other than perfect.
- 52:03SPEAKER_13: Never once did I have any sense of questioning it, because I had total reliance on him, and I still have that total reliance and affection and respect for him.
- 52:12SPEAKER_13: Bob Packwood has one of the finest minds that I have seen since I've been in the Senate.
- 52:17SPEAKER_13: We have served together in the Finance Committee for 18 years.
- 52:21SPEAKER_13: And there's Bob Packwood, who's responsible for the Republican Party having as many senators as we do here.
- 52:28SPEAKER_13: When I first came to the Senate, there were 37 Republicans.
- 52:32SPEAKER_13: And Bob Packwood was in the leadership at that time and conceived the idea of having retreats in the Eastern Shore where the Republicans would get together and come up with plans for the future.
- 52:43SPEAKER_13: And it was Bob Packwood that came up with the idea of what is now the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, where the Republican Senatorial Trust that he formed.
- 52:55SPEAKER_13: And before one running for office, when I ran for office, I received a small amount of money from the Republicans in the Senate, a very modest amount.
- 53:04SPEAKER_13: But it was Bob Packwood would really conceive the machinery that we have now and the result of the tremendous funding that Republican candidates are presently receiving.
- 53:15SPEAKER_13: And many have talked about his legislative achievements, but to my mind, the greatest single achievement in Bob Packwood in legislative affairs was the 1986 tax bill.
- 53:27SPEAKER_13: That bill was absolutely stalled, was going nowhere.
- 53:32SPEAKER_13: Come from the House, not much of a bill, came over here, we argued with it, everybody came up with suggestions and how to reduce expenditures or how to have greater tax breaks.
- 53:46SPEAKER_13: We all competed with each other, took care of everybody in sight as the deficit rose and rose in our calculations.
- 53:53SPEAKER_13: And then Bob Packwood said, that's it.
- 53:55SPEAKER_13: And it was he who came up with the final program that we had.
- 54:01SPEAKER_13: And it was the 1986 tax bill that it was a tax is a Packwood tax bill that I and many others unanimously voted in the committee.
- 54:09SPEAKER_13: And I'll never forget that evening.
- 54:11SPEAKER_13: Pat Moynihan was there, Senator Dole was there.
- 54:16SPEAKER_13: When we finished that vote, unanimous vote, everybody stood and applauded the chairman of the committee for a tremendous feat that he had accomplished.
- 54:28SPEAKER_13: So we we'll miss it.
- 54:30SPEAKER_13: We'll miss a fine brain in this Senate.
- 54:33SPEAKER_13: We'll miss him pacing across down in the well as matters were debated, coming up and getting at his desk, back and forth.
- 54:43SPEAKER_13: I'll miss that distinctive walk he had, bent forward slightly as he charges over here.
- 54:51SPEAKER_13: I'll miss so much because we were very close friends and will remain close friends, and I'll greatly miss him as we all will.
- 54:58SPEAKER_12: Thank you, Mr.
- 54:59SPEAKER_13: Chairman.
- 54:59SPEAKER_13: Mr.
- 55:00SPEAKER_13: President.
- 55:00SPEAKER_12: Senator from New York.
- 55:03SPEAKER_10: Mr.
- 55:03SPEAKER_10: President, I have not prepared any remarks for this occasion, and I will be the first to assert that I'm not especially prepared.
- 55:18SPEAKER_10: Accordingly, to be brief, perhaps the more intense for that reason, to say that in 18 years we've shared this committee, the Senator from Rhode Island just said they have been years of perfect trust between us and, in my part, profound admiration.
- 55:41SPEAKER_10: And just a moment to cheer the Senator from Rhode Island will remember in those intense days leading up to the 1986 legislation.
- 55:52SPEAKER_10: We would we'd meet each morning in Senator Fatwood's office about 7.30 with coffee to plan the day's strategy.
- 56:02SPEAKER_10: And if you'd like to know something about the tax code, as it then was, it fell to me each morning to read the service, uh as it were.
- 56:15SPEAKER_10: I would find the previous day an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal that said, by oxen, antelope, I don't know, cattle, guaranteed losses.
- 56:30SPEAKER_10: And they would guarantee you losses and you couldn't make money on the tax card.
- 56:34SPEAKER_10: It's all gone.
- 56:37SPEAKER_10: And the scan be new.
- 56:42SPEAKER_10: Thanks for you, and thanks for so much, Else.
- 56:45SPEAKER_10: The um there there is just one line, perhaps, of help of Dr.
- 56:55SPEAKER_10: Johnson, who said um in the years ahead, how few of all the ills that uh human hearts endure that part which laws are kings can cause or cure.
- 57:11SPEAKER_10: This last uh spring my Liz and I are your dear Liz.
- 57:19SPEAKER_10: I went to um I went to uh Ephesus where John took Mary after the crucifixion.
- 57:35SPEAKER_10: Basilica.
- 57:37SPEAKER_10: And I can I can think of only his lines from John Corinthians verses 13 and now abideh faith, hope, and charity.
- 57:55SPEAKER_10: But the greatest of these is charity.
- 58:00SPEAKER_10: The Greek, he was speaking in Greek, is charitas, and in English we translate it love.
- 58:11SPEAKER_10: I yield the floor.
- 58:17SPEAKER_12: The Senator from California.
- 58:21SPEAKER_00: Mr.
- 58:21SPEAKER_00: President, I not know Senator Packwood well, but I have watched him.
- 58:29SPEAKER_00: I heard him on CNN last evening, I heard him on other shows, I've listened to him as the leader and the senator from Wyoming have pointed out, explain complicated issues in a vital and easily understood way.
- 58:46SPEAKER_00: I've listened as the heads of various women's organizations have indicated their respect for him and for his long record of health.
- 58:57SPEAKER_00: And I recognize that service in this institution is not easy, that people are held to a standard, and after all, we are just mirror reflections of everyone around us.
- 59:09SPEAKER_00: We are complete with moles and warts and our own problems.
- 59:14SPEAKER_00: So this is not a happy day for me.
- 59:18SPEAKER_00: I do not believe it is a happy day for the United States Senate.
- 59:23SPEAKER_00: I do believe it is a day of some courage and bravery on the part of Senator Packwood, because even those of us who did not know him well know of his love for this body.
- 59:36SPEAKER_00: You could see it.
- 59:37SPEAKER_00: It is palpable, it is there, and his respect for this body as an institution.
- 59:44SPEAKER_00: And I really think that kind of performance goes beyond any party label, and it goes beyond any trial and tribulation.
- 59:55SPEAKER_00: My father used to always say to me, Diane, don't let a man be known for the last thing he does.
- 1:00:03SPEAKER_00: Let him be known for the best thing he does.
- 1:00:07SPEAKER_00: And I think that is the legacy that hopefully is being written here this afternoon.
- 1:00:13SPEAKER_00: This is a sad day in a chapter of history of the United States Senate.
- 1:00:18SPEAKER_00: But it says one thing: we do have our failings and we do make our mistakes.
- 1:00:24SPEAKER_00: But it is the sign of a wise man and even a giant man who stands and does what has to be done and goes on to fight another day.
- 1:00:35SPEAKER_00: I thank you, Senator Packwood, for long and distinguished service to the United States Senate.
- 1:00:41unknown: Mr.
- 1:00:41SPEAKER_06: President.
- 1:00:43SPEAKER_06: Senator from Pennsylvania.
- 1:00:44SPEAKER_06: Mr.
- 1:00:45SPEAKER_06: President, this is a very sad day for many reasons.
- 1:00:49SPEAKER_06: I think we're losing an outstanding senator at a time when the Senate and the country needs his expertise very badly.
- 1:00:58SPEAKER_06: And uh I join my many colleagues who have expressed a sentiment about the friendship which I have enjoyed with Senator Packwood.
- 1:01:08SPEAKER_06: I think that the Senate and the country, and Senator Packwood, and the people who have registered complaints about him would have been better served had there been public hearings.
- 1:01:23SPEAKER_06: And this is a view that I have always held and expressed with my vote in favor of those public hearings.
- 1:01:31SPEAKER_06: I understand the busyness of the Senate, uh, but I believe that we could have found the time uh during many of the forum calls, or perhaps on weekends or perhaps on evenings, uh, to have uh heard this matter.
- 1:01:47SPEAKER_06: I believe uh that America was entitled to full disclosure.
- 1:01:52SPEAKER_06: I believe that the people who came forward with complaints were entitled to be heard, and I think Senator Packwood was entitled to uh have a defense.
- 1:02:02SPEAKER_06: Uh and I think that I, as a juror, as a senator, who had a pass on uh the issues, uh would have been better pre would have been prepared and would have been better off had uh had that been done.
- 1:02:14SPEAKER_06: I've always been opposed to plea bargains of uh uh of any sort.
- 1:02:19SPEAKER_06: And I understand the kind of pain and travail that would have been involved had we uh gone through those hearings, but I think it would have served the institution well and would have served all of the parties well.
- 1:02:32SPEAKER_06: Uh I had one other very, very painful experience with uh Senator Packwood when I got uh uh six stitches under my left eye a decade ago, but I consider this day uh much more painful.
- 1:02:49SPEAKER_01: On Friday, Senator Packwood stepped down as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
- 1:02:55SPEAKER_01: Senator Packwood later announced that his resignation will be effective October 1st.
- 1:03:01SPEAKER_01: Senator Packwood is the first senator to resign since New Jersey lawmaker Harrison Williams stepped down after being found guilty of bribery.