Constitution State News

WASHINGTON–U.S Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) spoke on the U.S. Senate floor on Wednesday to eulogize former Connecticut Governor and Senator Lowell Weicker. 

“Lowell Weicker served virtually every capacity you could helping to lead our state. He was a first selectman, he was a state representative, he was a congressman, he was a senator here in this chamber, and he was a governor,” Murphy said. “But throughout his long storied tenure as an elected official, for most of that time a Republican, as governor an independent, he led a life that was led by one simple axiom: do what is right. He put his principles, his convictions and what he thought was right, for our state, above every other political consideration. Certainly above party, he bucked his party here over and over and over again. His autobiography was entitled Maverick. But he also made decisions for the betterment of the state that ran directly contrary to his own political interests.” 

Murphy remembered how Governor Weicker’s political courage changed the way he thought about public service: “I was 17 years old at the time, when Lowell Weicker became governor and made that proposal. I don't think I had any thoughts on whether an income tax was the right or the wrong thing, but what I saw, for the first time, was a political leader standing up and doing what they thought was right, even though they knew it was unpopular, even though he knew it was likely going to be the end of his political career. And I was mesmerized. I was mesmerized by this act of political courage, by this act of political statesmanship. And it was one of the early examples that convinced me that there was honor in public service.” 

“It's been popular to say over the last few days, as we've been eulogizing Lowell Weicker, that he belonged to a different era in which you could just be for what you thought was right, and not worry about the political consequences. But I think that's a cop out. And I think my friend Lowell would say that's a cop out. Doing the right thing should be timeless. Putting country over party should be timeless. There's no reason why all of us can't learn a little bit about Governor, Senator Lowell Weicker's record upon his passing, and use him as a model for how we act as public servants as well,” Murphy concluded. 

A full transcript of his remarks can be found below:

“I come to the floor to talk about one of the greatest citizens, leaders, public servants in the history of my state.

“Lowell Palmer Weicker, Jr. died June 28th. We held services for him in Greenwich on Monday, and I want to celebrate him for a moment with my colleagues because they don't make them like Lowell Weicker any longer.

“Lowell Weicker served virtually every capacity you could helping to lead our state. He was a first selectman, he was a state representative, he was a congressman, he was a senator here in this chamber, and he was a governor.

“But throughout his long storied tenure as an elected official, for most of that time a Republican, as governor an independent, he led a life that was led by one simple axiom: do what is right.

“He put his principles, his convictions and what he thought was right, for our state, above every other political consideration. Certainly above party, he bucked his party here over and over and over again. His autobiography was entitled Maverick. But he also made decisions for the betterment of the state that ran directly contrary to his own political interests. And I'll talk about the most famous of those decisions, those calls that he made in a moment when he was governor.

“I got to know Lowell Weicker only in the last decade of his life and I'm sorry for that, because he played a very big role in my decision to pursue public service as a vocation.

“Lowell Weicker was born in Paris. He was raised on Park Avenue in Manhattan, Oyster Bay in Long Island. He followed his father's footsteps through prep school, to college at Yale. He graduated Yale in 1953, University of Virginia Law School in 1958. He served two years in the Army as an artillery officer. He began his political career as a local representative serving his town of Greenwich. He was a state representative, and then he was first selectman.

“He ran first for Congress in 1968. He unseated a three-term Democrat, representing Fairfield County. And from that first race, you could see that Lowell Weicker was going to be a different kind of political leader.

“He ran to the left of his Democratic opponent on the issue of Vietnam. He ran for Congress as a Republican who opposed President Nixon's war. And as Congressman, he staked out a series of contrary positions to his party, earning him early on the reputation of someone who was just going to do what he thought was right over and over and over.

“Later in life, he said, ‘there's going to be this crucial moment in your career, the question is whether you mature or whether you're going to be an ideologue.’

“Lowell Weicker was never an ideologue, and there's no question of whether he matured. He was proud of the fact that he changed his stance on issues over the course of his career. When he got to Congress, he supported prayer in schools. He ended up as a senator, here, successfully leading the opposition to President Reagan's push for a constitutional amendment to allow organized prayer in public schools. He changed, he matured, he didn't run from that. He was proud of it.

“In the Senate, he is probably best known to be the first Republican to call for President Nixon's resignation. Speaking about his Republican Party that he was so proud of, he said, let me be clear, because I've got to have my partisan moment: Republicans do not cover up, Republicans do not go ahead and threaten, Republicans do not go ahead and commit illegal acts, and God knows Republicans don't view their fellow Americans as enemies to be harassed. I can assure you, this Republican and those I serve with look upon all Americans as human beings to be loved, and won.

“In 1981, he was the only Republican to vote against President Reagan's first budget as I mentioned he fought hard against that constitutional amendment to allow organized prayer in schools because he came to believe very deeply in the separation of church and state.

“But maybe what defines Lowell Weicker's career in the Senate, more than Watergate, is his ability to see the future. He always talked about the fact that he was living for the future.

“When standing up for people living with HIV and AIDS was controversial, Lowell Weicker was leading the fight on the Senate floor to put early money into AIDS research.

“When it wasn't a foregone conclusion that we would make sure that people with disabilities have access to buildings in this country, Lowell Weicker wrote the Americans with Disabilities Act. It passed just after he left the Senate, but he was the originator of that legislation.

“Today, Sheldon Whitehouse reminds us of our obligation to our oceans. Before anybody else is talking about the oceans, it was Lowell Weicker down here talking about the need to invest in oceans and oceans research.

“But I remember Lowell Weicker when he became governor. Lowell Weicker ran as an independent for governor. He won a three way race, and he was facing a state crisis, a fiscal crisis of epic proportions. He didn't like the idea of a state income tax. He, frankly, opposed the idea earlier in his career, but he surveyed every other option necessary to rescue Connecticut from its political and fiscal crisis and he judged that an income tax was the only path forward. And so he took a step that he knew would mean that he could only serve one term in office.

“He was a young man when he became governor. He was in his late 50s, early 60s, but he stood up and said the only way for Connecticut to be fiscally sound going into the future is to have an income tax. He fought both Republicans and Democrats to get that done. And he got it done.

“I was 17 years old at the time, when Lowell Weicker became governor and made that proposal. I don't think I had any thoughts on whether an income tax was the right or the wrong thing, but what I saw, for the first time, was a political leader standing up and doing what they thought was right, even though they knew it was unpopular, even though he knew it was likely going to be the end of his political career. And I was mesmerized.

“I was mesmerized by this act of political courage, by this act of political statesmanship. And it was one of the early examples that convinced me that there was honor in public service.

“And so, I am deeply grateful to the example that Lowell Weicker set for all of us during his time in the Senate, the first Republican to call for Nixon's resignation, to the time as governor where he set the state on a course of fiscal sanity. During those income tax debates, thousands of people would show up at the capitol. In fact, one day 40,000 people showed up at the state capitol. They hung Governor Lowell Weicker in effigy.

“He didn't sit in his office. He walked into the crowd, to try to reason and negotiate with them. It didn't last long, he was pelted with cans and bottles and sodas, he had to be hustled out of the crowd as quickly as he went in. But it caused Howard Baker, one of his great friends in the Senate to say, ‘Lowell Weicker, that's the only man I ever met who would strike a match to go look into the gas tank.’

“It's been popular to say over the last few days, as we've been eulogizing Lowell Weicker, that he belonged to a different era in which you could just be for what you thought was right, and not worry about the political consequences. But I think that's a cop out. And I think my friend Lowell would say that's a cop out.

“Doing the right thing should be timeless. Putting country over party should be timeless. There's no reason why all of us can't learn a little bit about Governor, Senator Lowell Weicker's record upon his passing, and use him as a model for how we act as public servants as well.

“Lowell Weicker died last week at age 92, one of the most consequential people in Connecticut's history. And I choose remember Lowell Weicker and the example he set as timeless.

“I yield the floor.”

Original source can be found here