Biden and Clinton Say Goodbye to Senate

[Beacool]

January 15, 2009
By Bernie Becker





Just days before they move onto new jobs and challenges, Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton took to the Senate floor to bid farewell to their colleagues.

And, perhaps not too surprisingly, both displayed well-known personality traits – Mr. Biden’s chattiness, Mrs. Clinton’s attention to detail – in addition to effusively praising their colleagues and the Senate.

In saying her goodbyes, Mrs. Clinton looked back on what her adopted state of New York had accomplished and the challenges it faced during her time as senator, almost a decade after she undertook a listening tour to introduce herself to Empire State residents and sell them on her candidacy.

In a more rollicking speech earlier in the morning, Mr. Biden showed off what Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called his “not entirely undeserved reputation for loquaciousness” – peppering his speech with asides, calling out to his (for the moment) colleagues by their first name, and dropping the names of long deceased senators, like Hubert Humphrey and John Stennis.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/biden-and-clinton-say-goodbye-to-senate/#comments

[Jennicut]

1. Mitch McConnel surprisingly had nice things to say about Joe

a little weird but I guess Joe has been nice to everyone over the years. I did not get to catch Hillary's, I will have to find it.

[Beacool]

2. The senate is convivial.

Even though senators may fight like cats and dogs over policy, many have forged over the years close friendships with senators from both sides of the aisle.

Here's the link to Hillary's farewell speech.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NBoxhGtv70

;-)

[Jennicut]

3. Yeah. I think that is actually a good thing. No need to be enemies

even though you vote totally different then another Senator or you totally have different beliefs. Joe was surprsingly friends with Ted Stevens, Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms and of course McCain. He is still close to Arlen Spector who sometimes would ride on the train to PA while Joe was going back to Delaware. Joe seems very friendly so I bet he is easy to become friends with. Heck, Hillary was friendly with McCain as well. I have parents who are Republicans so I know what this is like.

Thanks for the link, off to watch it now!