Senator Mike DeWine

SENATOR MIKE DeWINE -- (Senate - November 16, 2006)

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, a few moments ago, our colleague from the State of Ohio, Senator MIKE DEWINE, gave tribute to three Ohioans who lost their lives in Iraq. I listened to these carefully and I hope others did as well. They were beautiful life stories, beautifully written, beautifully spoken by the Senator. I went up to him afterwards and asked him how many Ohioans had lost their lives in Iraq. He said the number was 140. He has given 90 tributes on the floor and hopes before he leaves the Senate in a few weeks to finish the last 50. He is determined to get it done as a tribute to these families. He said: It is about all we can do, isn't it? He is right. It says a lot about MIKE DEWINE, a lot that many of us already knew.

I came to Congress with MIKE in 1982. I recall we were both elected to the House of Representatives. I was from the central part of Illinois and he was from Ohio. We had a dinner at the White House. I recall that his wife Fran, who had just had a baby a few days before, came in her beautiful gown with her husband MIKE in a tuxedo, carrying a basket with their baby in it. They sat down next to Loretta and myself for dinner with President Reagan that night. I have joked about that because I met that little girl recently. She has grown up now, and we remembered the first time we ever laid eyes on her.

MIKE and I have worked on so many things--the global AIDS epidemic. He has been my go-to guy on the Republican side of the aisle. When I had absolutely given up any hope of passing legislation for hundreds of millions of dollars to save hundreds of millions of lives, MIKE managed to help out in many different ways.

He invited me once to travel to Haiti with him. Haiti is a DeWine family project. MIKE and Fran have made over 15 trips to that poor island and have met with so many people there in orphanages and on streets trying to help them. There is a little school in Port-au-Prince, the Becky DeWine school, named after MIKE and Fran's late daughter. They have poured more love and resources into that school for some of the poorest kids on this planet than we could ever count. They worked together with Father Tom of Hands Together and so many other great charities that have done such work.

As I listened to MIKE tonight give his tributes to these Ohio soldiers, I was reminded what a quality individual he is. Elections come and go. People win and people lose. But the quality of MIKE DEWINE's service to the Senate on behalf of the people of Ohio is written large in the history of this institution.

I thank him for his friendship and for his leadership. I wish him, Fran, and the entire family the very best in whatever their future endeavors might entail.

http://thomas.loc.gov/