Commending Coleman

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CHAMBLISS. Madam President, I rise to speak this morning for a few minutes about my dear friend, now former Senator, Norm Coleman, from the great State of Minnesota. Norm was a very unique individual in the Senate. He grew up in New York, was educated in Iowa, and wound up living in Minnesota. He was a student leader in undergraduate school as well as in law school, so his leadership qualities were certainly recognized early on.

Norm grew up in an era right behind me, which was the era of big rock bands, and Norm was right in with the majority of the crowd of young folks back then and, in fact, was a roadie with a rock band for a while. He spent his 20th birthday at Woodstock. We used to joke about that a lot in some of our conversations.

After law school, Norm obviously settled down in the State of Minnesota where he joined the Office of the Attorney General and eventually became the State solicitor general. He prosecuted any number of cases in both of those offices. He became the mayor of St. Paul, MN, in 1993, and, boy, did he ever take over a town that was headed south and bring it back to be a totally revitalized community in a way in which, frankly, I have never seen.

When you talk to the people of St. Paul today and you ask them about what Norm Coleman did for the downtown area of St. Paul, a smile immediately comes to the faces of those residents of St. Paul. He created thousands of new jobs and brought in more than $3 billion of new development to the city. The one thing St. Paul residents, as well as Minneapolis residents, will tell you today about Norm Coleman from the standpoint of his legacy as mayor is that he brought the hockey team back to Minneapolis-St. Paul, and that has had a tremendous economic influence on that community.

I think it is a real tribute to Norm and his leadership that after being elected as a Democrat in 1993, he became a Republican in 1996, and then ran for reelection as mayor in 1997 as a Republican, and was again elected mayor of St. Paul. Norm ran for Governor of Minnesota in 1998, and as a testament to the character, the integrity, and the dedication as a public servant of Norm Coleman, when he lost that race for Governor, he was still mayor of St. Paul, and the day after that election, he was back in his mayoral office at 8 o'clock in the morning taking care of the business of the people of St. Paul.

I was very privileged to know Norm in a way other than just being a colleague. We were very close personal friends. Having been elected together, individuals within classes tend to hang together from time to time, and Norm and I enjoyed many social moments outside of this Chamber, as well as many strong professional moments inside this Chamber. I will have to say that as chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, of which Norm was a member, there was no harder working member of that committee for his constituents, no more dedicated individual to agricultural interests in his State than was Norm Coleman. In fact, during the farm bill debate last year, Norm pounded on me every single day during the course of that farm bill debate about some issue that was of particular interest to his State. It may have been talking about some issue relative to ethanol, some issue relative to the issues surrounding corn, wheat, or sugar beets, but whatever it was, Norm was just a hard-working, dedicated man when it came to making sure his constituents' interests were protected in that piece of legislation which was so vitally important to the State he represented.

I had the opportunity to travel with Norm many times in the State of Minnesota, and he likewise traveled in my State. I remember very well going to the Minnesota State fair with Norm. While we were there, we visited with some of his corn growers whom I have gotten to know on a personal basis as a result of my relationship with Norm.

I will never forget that because coming from a cotton-growing State where we produce a fiber that is used in the manufacture of clothing, the folks in Minnesota have developed a way to produce a piece of cloth from by-products of corn and ethanol production. They gave me a shirt that day. It was a red shirt. They hadn't quite perfected this procedure at that point in time. I had a T-shirt on underneath the shirt I had on, and I immediately took my shirt off and put that red shirt on. It was hot as it could be that day. When we got back to the hotel that night, I took that shirt off, and I had this pink undershirt on as a result of having that shirt on. The corn growers have reminded me of that. We have had a good laugh about that ever since.

Norm is just one of those guys who not only was a dedicated professional Member of this body, but he is a good guy. He is one of those individuals who folks on both sides of the aisle had, first of all, respect for as a Member of this body, but also from a personal standpoint Norm was easy to get along with, easy to work with, and he wanted to do what was in the best interests of Americans.

I think his work on the Foreign Relations Committee, particularly with respect to his investigation of the fraudulent activities ongoing at the United Nations, is unparalleled with respect to any investigation I have seen take place during my years in the Senate. He uncovered an awful lot of fraud and abuse.

As a result of Norm's dedicated work and his dogged determination, some changes have been made. Were Norm to have come back to the Senate, there is no question he would have continued to pursue that issue, and we will continue to receive benefits from Norm's investigative measures that were undertaken at the United Nations.

I think Norm's reputation as a fighter and as a strong advocate for Minnesotans is reflective in the way he handled his election. He fought hard in his election. It was very much an uphill battle. A lot of us had tough elections last year, but nobody had a tougher one than Norm on a day-to-day basis. But he wanted to make sure the people who voted for him, the people who supported him and worked hard in his election all across the State of Minnesota had their just due, and he wanted to make sure he could look every Minnesotan in the eye and say: I did everything I could do to make sure this election was fairly conducted and to make sure that every single vote I could possibly get was counted.

At the end of the day, when the election was finally decided, once again, in his very professional way, he conceded and decided, as some of us have to do in politics from time to time, that it is time to move on.

We are going to miss Norm Coleman in this body. We are going to miss his family. Laurie and my wife are very dear friends. They communicated from time to time both while the two of them were in Washington as well as being in communication back and forth while they were in their respective States. We will miss that personal relationship. His daughter Sarah and his son Jacob are two very fine young people and certainly are reflective of the
fact that they have been raised by two very good parents.

So to Norm Coleman I simply say we will miss you in the Senate. We are not going to let him go away, though. I still talk to him on a regular basis and will continue to do so and will seek his advice, his counsel on any number of issues because this is a man who has served the public just about all of his adult life. He has done so in a professional way and in a way that all of us wish to emulate.

Congratulations to Norm, and good luck on whatever road life now takes him.

With that, I yield the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source