-9999
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. TILLIS. We look so much alike.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. TILLIS. Yes.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, my folks were wondering why I am sitting so close to Mitt Romney. He and I are seat mates. These are our assigned seats.
I told Mitt that I had not prepared a single comment, but I did want to come down and say a few things about him.
I hope that we use this opportunity and remember it over the next 2 years. Here is a question we can all ask or we can all talk about and thank him for the incredible work that he has done. And to his staff, the problems he has caused for you by being so honest, so forthright, and so direct. Right?
How many times, Mitt--you can't answer it because I think it is against the rules--but how many times have your staff gone: Boss, we wish sometimes you just weren't so forthright and honest?
But that is who this guy is. We have been battle buddies in a lot of the bipartisan efforts that have gone along. He is the reason why some of them passed, quite honestly. Without his support and the support of a handful of others, stuff that has enduring generational value would have never happened.
I would ask everybody here who is thanking Mitt Romney for his role model behavior in the times he has been in the Senate and the times that I have known him--the first time I met him was the December before his election, when I was a fairly newly minted legislator--and there is no reason why he would have known me or remembered that meeting. But I have been impressed with him since that moment in Charlotte, NC, when he was running for President--let us go forward and hopefully ask ourselves, as we come together as a nation, as we solve problems that can only be solved by people on both sides of the aisle coming together and taking the heat that comes along with that, let's ask ourselves over the next 2 or 4 years what would Mitt Romney do and let that be a guiding post for those of us who are going to be here who may be put into those situations to do right by this country.
We are going to have one less person in Mitt here, but I believe it is in all of us to emulate what Mitt has done. I hope that that is a part of the legacy that we will honor as he is gone.
Finally, if you don't know about Mitt--I am going to miss him for those reasons. Those are all legitimate reasons to miss Mitt, but I am going to miss his fast wit and his ability to just call things quickly. Having a seat mate like that when you are in the middle of vote-arama is gold, folks. Nobody is going to know that except for the conversations we have had back here in the middle of the night.
He is a good man, a good father, a great grandfather.
I know I am not supposed to do this either, but by show of hands, who shares DNA with Mitt Romney up there in the Gallery? Yes. Well, congratulations to all of you and the dozens of other family members who have to be hugely proud of Mitt Romney. I am.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source