Robert Byrd

Mr. BYRD

Mr. BYRD. At 12 noon, at which time, under the unanimous consent order entered last evening, I will get recognized. Now, I intend to explain my amendment clearly because my amendment is not adversarial to the Lieberman bill. My amendment improves, in my judgment--and I think people will agree once they really understand my amendment--the Lieberman amendment, the Lieberman bill. Therefore, I will be explaining my amendment. That is in answer to the question of the distinguished Senator. At that time, if he wishes me to yield to ask questions about homeland security, that will be fine, but I intend to take some time this afternoon. At that time, the Senator can speak. As far as I am concerned, if Senators are going to speak on the Interior bill at this time, why, the Senator could get unanimous consent to speak out of order. I do not believe the Pastore rule has run its course yet. So the Senator could get consent to speak out of order for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, whatever he wants, and nobody is around here to object.

Mr. BYRD. I assume the Senate will return to homeland security this afternoon. The order is, I believe, 12 or 12:30?

Mr. BYRD. Madam President, if I may respond to the Senator's question without his losing his right to the floor? He has asked me a question.

Mr. BYRD

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I still have the floor, do I not?

Mr. BYRD

Mr. BYRD. I thank the Senator.

Mr. BYRD

Mr. BYRD. By requiring Senate confirmation of this new Director of the National Office for Combating Terrorism, Congress will ensure that its concerns over the implementation of homeland security strategy will not be subordinated to the political agenda of the White House. Remember, we are not just talking about a Director of Homeland Security under the Bush administration. We are not just talking about a Director of Homeland Security under a Republican administration. There can very well come a time there will be a Director of Homeland Security under a Democratic administration, and I hope the Senators will see the wisdom in looking forward to a time when the worm will turn, the wheel will turn, and there will be a Democrat in the White House. I am thinking of Senate confirmation as something that will be important under a Democratic administration as well as under a Republican administration, as important to the people of this country under a Democratic President as under a Republican President, under Mr. Bush. For the moment, it is a Republican President. A thousand years is but a day in God's reach. And there will probably be a Department of Homeland Security after my life on this globe has run its span. The war against terrorism may not end soon. It may go on and on. Who knows? The President himself has said it will not be quick, it will not be easy, and it will not be short. Therefore, it is not difficult to imagine that there will come a day when there will be a Democratic President in the White House, and I say that my Republicans friends, when that time comes, will be glad if we in our day have required the Director of Homeland Security to be confirmed by the Senate. So we are not legislating for a day, a week, or the remaining 2 years of this Republican administration. We are debating and acting for a long time. Once this is on the statute books, it is not easy to change it because a President can veto a change. If Congress sees the unwisdom of its ways today and seeks to change the statute books, maybe a President in the White House would veto that bill if it came to his desk. So its easier, in a way, to make a law than it is to change a law, in some instances. We had better do it right the first time, rather than just do it fast. Do it right. That is what I am seeking to do. Even when the President's advisers want to conceal the agency mismanagement or shift public focus toward a war with Iraq, Congress can make sure that the Director's job is getting done because Congress can ask him directly. So I tell my colleagues that I understand their desire to style the statutory office by yielding to the urge that I know some Members do. Let's do it right. There may be a different administration, maybe a different party at the White House, Mr. Bush may not be at the White House at that time, I may not be at my desk. Let's do it right. Let's do it the way we ought to do it. If the war on terror is to be with us a long time, a Director of Homeland Security will be with us a long time, and Tom Ridge, if he is to be the Director in the future, even he may be gone and another Director may stand in his stead. Think about that. It is more than just a thought in passing. I thank my friend from Nevada. I thank all Senators. I thank the wonderful people who have to man the desks up there. I thank the Presiding Officer, I thank the pages, the security personnel, the Doorkeepers and all. They have had to wait and listen. They are doing their job. I thank them and I apologize to them, in a way. I apologize for having delayed them to their places of abode. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BYRD. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I do not think a good steward would want to leave his job unfinished quite so abruptly. I do have a half page of my prepared remarks to read. I do not like to put items in the Record, so, if I may, I ask unanimous consent that again this not be counted as a second speech.

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I never was a show-off so I am not going to quote any poetry tonight. That would be showing off. I just wanted the Senator to know I could quote some poems. I can read the Constitution and comment on it as I go along. I can read the Declaration of Independence. I can read the Bible. I can read Milton's ``Paradise Lost.'' I could read Carlyle's ``History of the French Revolution.'' I could even read Daniel Defoe's ``Robinson Caruso.'' Just because my legs are hurting and I am growing quite frail and my voice is a little weak, I am not quite ready to say, well, they have the votes and let us quit. I thank the distinguished Democratic whip. The Senator knows I am getting tired, which is the reason I am not saying things just right. Let me see if there is anything else for which I need consent. I believe not, but it is my understanding that I will be recognized when the Senate next returns to the homeland security legislation. I thank the Chair and I thank the whip. I yield the floor.

Mr. BYRD. I know something about the Constitution, but I will save that for another day. I have a number of poems which I would be glad to quote even though these old legs are getting tired. Shall I quote one?

Mr. BYRD. I think reading it makes it better.

Mr. BYRD. And I am only on page 3 of page 4. Well, that is just a start. As John Paul Jones said, ``We have just begun to fight.'' I have in my pocket the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence. Once I finished page 4 tonight, I intended to start reading the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States to follow.

Mr. BYRD. May I say to the distinguished Senator, I am quite happy to go home. These old legs of mine have been carrying me around now for a long time. I always had heard that when one gets to be up in years a little bit, the feet and the legs first start to trouble one. So I can bear witness to that. In case there are any Senators who think the distinguished majority whip did wrongly in saying we could go home if the Senator would take a seat, let me say I have only spoken 2 hours and 15 minutes--is that accurate?

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the speech I have made not be counted as a speech under the two-speech rule.

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, my statement has to undergo some interruption because of the colloquy between Mr. Reid and myself. But the little remainder that I just read just now, I hope it will be understood from those who read the Record, that was the closing part of a previously prepared speech, and I hope they will keep that in mind when they read all parts of it in the Record. I would not ask it be joined directly with the first part, because of that colloquy. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BYRD.--I be recognized at that time.

Mr. BYRD. I thank the distinguished Democratic whip. I am very willing to take my tent and fold it silently and slip away. I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate next takes up homeland security----

Mr. BYRD. Yes.

Mr. BYRD. I see a more colorful hue as I look for it out here. My little dog's name is Trouble. My wife named the dog. Obviously, she was looking at me when she named the little dog Trouble. That little dog Trouble loves me, but he loves my wife more. My wife is in the hospital right now. I should go over to visit her. I am a little too late already. I am trying to remember what the great Englishman, Edmund Burke, said about the origin of the term ``whip.'' The ``whipper-in'' was the person who kept the hound from running away from the field in the fox chase. The English had the whip in the 14th century, certainly in the 17th century, the 1600s. The whip at that time would send what they called a ``circular letter'' to the King's supporters, or if there was a whip in the opposition, he would send a circular letter to the opponents of the King and tell them to come in and meet in Parliament at a certain day and a certain time about a certain piece of business. That was the whip. That was the English whip. That is where the whip system started. The House has a whip. The Senate has not had a whip as long as the other body has had a whip. The Senate has a great whip in the distinguished senior Senator from Nevada. I have been a whip, and before that I served under whips. I was a whip for 6 years, and I was a good whip. I stayed on the Senate floor all the time. But I say right here and now, as far as I am concerned, Senator Reid of Nevada is the best whip the Senate has ever had, notwithstanding even that I was a Senate whip. I served as whip when Mr. Mansfield was majority leader. I put everything I had into being a whip. I stood by the gate. If I had been told to guard that gate, I would have been at that gate alive or dead when Mr. Mansfield came back. This Senator from Nevada, as far as I am concerned, is the best whip we have ever had. He is right here on this floor all the time, or within a voice from this floor. He works here on this floor. He is very loyal to his majority leader, and he is loyal to his duties, to his people back home. He tells me every now and then he has a delegation from Nevada that he has to go and see. But this whip is here at all times, and he is here to protect me. If I to leave the floor, he will protect me. I know he will. He is a good whip. He is a great whip. I will take my hat off any day and say: Gunga Din, you are a better whip than I am. That is saying a lot. I don't say that often. I was a good whip, but the Senator is a better whip than I was because he probably is more loyal to his party than I was and more loyal to his majority leader than I was. I stood on this floor offering an amendment during the Vietnam war to say the President of the United States--who happened to be Richard Nixon at the time--had a duty to do whatever it took. If it meant bombing the Vietcong across the lines in Cambodia, the President had a duty to do that to protect our American servicemen. I offered that amendment, and my majority leader was opposed to it. I stood by it; I fought the fight and lost. Mr. Nixon called me on the telephone that same afternoon from Camp David. He said: You did a great thing down there. He called me Bob. My wife does not call me Bob. She is kind enough to call me Robert. He said: Bob, that's a great thing you did. In his words, he said: You did a statesmanlike job. You stood for what you believed in, and you offered an amendment on behalf of the servicemen, the men in the field. You stood by what you thought, and you even stood against your own party, the leadership. That was all right, and that was well and good for me because I have my own views of what is required of me. But the distinguished Senator from Nevada, he is not disloyal to his leader, not to the people over here who elected him to his position in the Senate, nor to the people back in Nevada who sent him here. I salute him. I will quietly fold my tent and fade away from the Chamber if he is about to tell me that there will not be any more votes and that tomorrow, when we come back, I may have the floor again.

Mr. BYRD. I really feel guilty in detaining the distinguished Senator, the very able Senator, my friend. He is one I have admired all the time I have known him. I am sorry I have detained him on his wedding anniversary. I wish the Senator would have let me know that a little earlier.

Mr. BYRD. That might send me home to my dear wife of 65 years and 3 months and 14 days.

Mr. BYRD. I am not aware of that. That might change my outlook.

Mr. BYRD. Yes.

Mr. BYRD. I wasn't really aware of the passage of time. Along that line, may I say, let me see if I can quote a little verse by someone else: The clock of life is wound but once, And no man has the power to know just when the hand will strike, at late or early hour. Now is all the time we have, so live, love, and work with a will. Take no thought of tomorrow, for the clock may then be still.