Kirk echoes Brooke's call for bipartisanship

KIRK'S REMARKS

I was deeply moved yesterday to witness a ceremony in the rotunda of this building, at which Edward W. Brooke, the distinguished former Republican Senator from Massachusetts, was honored with the Congressional Gold Medal.

This award is the highest bipartisan award that Congress can bestow. The award was the result of legislation sponsored by two history-minded Democrats: Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton of Washington D.C., and Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, who served with Ed Brooke in the United States Senate for many years.

Ed Brooke was a trailblazer, a bridge-builder, and a statesman. The grandson of a slave, he grew up in a segregated neighborhood not far from this chamber, but he rose to become the first African-American elected to the United States Senate.

I am proud that Massachusetts sent Ed Brooke to Washington, and we saw yesterday what our state long ago saw in him: his strength, his wisdom, his decency, and his deep commitment to meeting the needs of the American people.

Ed Brooke was elected as a Republican, but the people of Massachusetts didn’t see him as a party man. They saw him as a great American, and a model politician. They supported him because they understood that difficult times require statesmen who can work across party lines.

Returning to the Capitol yesterday at the age of 90, Senator Brooke spoke powerfully about this Senate as a place where members of both parties can and must work together for the common good.

That was the spirit of the Senate in which Ed Brooke served.

That was the spirit of the Senate that Ted Kennedy embraced, and the spirit that led to countless bipartisan accomplishments.

It is a spirit that we desperately need to revitalize as we work our way through the needed reform and repair of our broken health care system.

As an elder statesman of the Republican Party, this is what Senator Brooke said yesterday:

“I’m here to tell you that politics is not an evil thing. It’s a good thing and when used properly it does good things. I think of the awesome responsibilities of the House of Representative and the United States Senate in these years of crisis. Three wars that we’re in, and an economy that has taken such a long time to turn around, and the lack of adequate safe housing that we promised the nation back in 1949, clear air and clear water, a health care bill -- you have awesome responsibilities. Not only this country, but this world looks to you.

When Republicans and Democrats get together they can do anything! And the country is waiting for you to do anything. They just want relief. You have that responsibility, you have that authority, you are the people on earth that are going to save this country and save this world. Think about that. We’ve got to get to together. We have no alternative. There’s nothing left. It’s time for politics to be put aside on the back burner.”

Like Senator Brooke, I have the perspective of someone who has spent the last few decades in private life. I can reliably report that American families are deeply troubled by the economic hardship of the present and by the uncertainty about the future. It gives them no comfort to see The United States Senate so politically polarized and unwilling to come together in common cause, without regard to politics, to solve the critical problems before us.

As I said in my maiden speech in this chamber just two days ago,

“As this health care debate moves forward, we who are privileged to serve in this historic body, on both sides of the aisle, have the opportunity and the obligation to take the long view, to put partisan politics aside, and come together to seize this unique and critical moment in our history.”

I have served in the past as Chairman of the Democratic Party of the United States, so I am no stranger to partisan politics. But I like to think I know when it is time to put partisanship aside and work together.

As President Obama said yesterday, “while we grace Senator Brooke with this honor today, perhaps a better tribute to him would be to embrace that spirit: to compete aggressively at the polls, but then work selflessly together to serve the nation we love.’’

No words could serve as a better summons to the historic debate on health care that lies ahead of us.

We are poised to enact the most significant domestic legislation since the civil rights era. I know that each and every Senator has deeply held beliefs about how we can best reform our health care system – and that those deeply held beliefs will sometimes collide. We should and we will have a vigorous debate in this chamber.

But that debate should reflect a level of the civility and the cooperation that is equal to the magnitude of what is at stake for American families. It should reflect the spirit of teamwork and collaboration that we always saw in statesmen like Ed Brooke -- and Ted Kennedy. Our times, and our nation, demand nothing less.

I offer my sincere congratulations to Senator Brooke. I thank him for his service to this country and his wise counsel to those of us who are serving in the Senate today. I ask unanimous consent to place Senator Brooke’s remarks, and all of the remarks at yesterday’s Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony into the record, and I commend them to my colleagues.