OTHER SENATORS. AND IT WAS ALWAYS KINDLY GIVEN. HE WAS A
           POPULAR SENATOR, AND HE EASILY COULD HAVE WON REELECTION TO A
           FOURTH SENATE TERM. HIS CAREER OF PUBLIC SERVICE SPANNED 42
           YEARS. ABE RIBICOFF HAD A VERY RARE SENSE OF TIMING AND

           POLITICAL JUDGMENT. HE WAS AMONG THE FIRST TO ENDORSE SENATOR
           JOHN F. KENNEDY FOR PRESIDENT. HE NOMINATED JOHN F. KENNEDY FOR
           VICE PRESIDENT IN 1956 AND WAS HIS CONVENTION FLOOR MANAGER FOR
           THE NOW-LEGENDARY SUCCESSFUL PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION IN 1960.
           ABE RIBICOFF HAD THE AIR AND DIGNITY OF A SENATOR, OF A SENATOR

           INA CLASSIC SENSE. HE ALWAYS DRESSED IMPECCABLY. HE POSSESSED
           THOUGHTLESS MANNERS, AND HE WAS A GENTLEMAN IN EVERY SENSE OF
           THE WORD. AND YET HE SPOKE FORCEFULLY, ANDS HE WAS UNAFRAID OF
           ADVOCATING POLITICALLY DIFFICULT POSITIONS, UNAFRAID. HE WAS
           AMONG THE FIRST TO BREAK WITH THE STRONG-ARM TACTICS OF CERTAIN

           ISRAELI LOBBY GROUPS, AND HE WILLINGLY PAID A POLITICAL PRICE
           FOR HIS COURAGE COURAGE. IN 1978 HE CONDUCTED THE FIRST MAJOR
           SENATE INVESTIGATION AND PRODUCED THE FIRST SENATE REPORT ON
           THE DIFFICULT PROBLEM OF GLOBAL WARMING. HIS REPORT ON THE
           SUBJECT COULD WELL HAVE BEEN WRITTEN TODAY, SOME 20 YEARS
           LATER, WHEN GLOBAL WARMING HAS NOW BECOME FASHIONABLE AS AN

           ISSUE. HE WAS ALSO AN EXPERT ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE. I HAVE
           SPOKEN OF HIS SERVICE DURING THE TIME THAT I WAS MAJORITY
           LEADER. HE WAS THEN THE CHAIRMAN OF THE SENATE GOVERNMENTAL
           AFFAIRS COMMITTEE, AS WELL AS SECOND RANKING DEMOCRAT UNDER
           SENATOR RUSSELL LONG ON THE FINANCE COMMITTEE. I RELIED HEAVILY
           ON ABE RIBICOFF'S ADVICE ON A BROAD RANGE OF ISSUES FROM THE

           CREATION OF THE CABINET-LEVEL DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO THE
           FASHIONING OF MAJOR ENERGY LEGISLATION DURING THE ENERGY CRISIS
           OF THE LATE 1970'S. ABE RIBICOFF WAS A PERSUASIVE SPEAKER, AND
           HE ALWAYS GAVE AS WELL AS HE GOT IN SENATE DEBATES DEBATES.
           DURING THE DAYS WHEN THE SENATE REALLY DID DEBATE ISSUES. AND
           YET HIS STRENGTH WAS AS MUCH IN HIS ABILITY TO SENSE THE

           APPROPRIATE COMPROMISE, AND HE KNEW HOW TO BUILD CONSENSUS AND
           TO CRAFT SOUND SOLUTIONS TO HIGHLY CONTENTIOUS ISSUES IN
           COMMITTEE AND ON THE SENATE FLOOR. HIS PASSING AT A RIPE OLD
           AGE IS ANOTHER CHAPTER ROUNDING OUT A HISTORY OF REMARKABLE MEN
           WHO HAVE GRACED THIS CHAMBER AND WHO HAVE MADE THEIR INDIVIDUAL

           MARKS ON THE MINDS AND MEMORIES AND HEARTS OF THEIR COLLEAGUES.
           AND THEY'VE DONE IT ON THE BECAUSE SIS OF THEIR CHARACTER,
           THEIR INSTINCTS AND THEIR TALENTS. SENATORS WOULD DO WELL TO
           READ THE STORY OF ABRAHAM RIBICOFF'S LIFE. HE CAME FROM HUMBLE
           BEGINNINGS, AND HE MADE A SUCCESS FROM HIS OWN RESOURCES, HIS

           OWN IT, HIS OWN INSTINCTS. HIS LIFE WAS ONE WHICH CAN BE USED
           AS A MODEL BY OTHERS. ON BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE. HE STOOD HIS
           GROUND WHEN IT REALLY COUNTED AND, CONSEQUENTLY, HE CLAIMED THE
           HIGH ROAD IN HIS POLITICAL LIFE LIFE. I HAVE MISSED ABE
           RIBICOFF'S COUNSEL SINCE HIS RETIREMENT AND I WISH HE HAD

           REMAINED LONGER IN THIS BODY. AND I WISH HE WERE HERE TODAY.
           ABE RIBICOFF WAGED MANY POLITICAL BATTLES IN HIS LIFE. THE
           BATTLE WITH DEATH HE FINALLY LOST. AS WE MUST ALL FINALLY
           SUCCUMB TO THE ONSLAUGHT OF THAT GRIM AND UNRELENTING ENEMY --
           DEATH. BUT THOUGH THAT GRIM REAPER MAY LAY CLAIM TO ENDING THE

           BATTLE OF THIS LIFE, THE CLAIM OF VICTORY HAS ALWAYS AND WILL
           ALWAYS ELUDE DEATH, EVEN THOUGH IT STALKS EACH OF OUR LIVES
           FROM THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE. HOW SWEEP THE WORDS OF THE GREAT
           APOSTLE PAUL IN HIS FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CRIJIANS. "O DEATH,
           WHERE IS THY STING?

           O GRAVE, WHERE IS THIGH VICTORY -- THY VICTORY?" MR. PRESIDENT,
           MAN WAS NOT CREATED AN ANIMAL, AS WE ARE TAUGHT IN OUR
           UNIVERSITIES AND OUR HIGH SCHOOLS. MAN WAS NOT CREATE AN
           ANIMAL. BUT AS A LIVING SOUL WITHIN WHICH THERE IS EMBEDDED A

           SPARK OF THE DIVINITY, A NEXUS WITH THE CREATOR. IT IS THAT
           SPARK THAT LIVES ON, A SOUL THAT AN ANIMAL DOES NOT HAVE, A
           SOUL THAT GOES BACK WHEN ONE DEPARTS THIS EARTHLY LIFE TO THE
           PRESENCE OF HIS MAKER. AND WE ALL HAVE THAT JOURNEY TO TRAVEL.
           GREAT GRECIAN AND ROMAN PHILOSOPHER, BY PURE REASON AND LOGIC,

           ARRIVED AT THE CONCLUSIONS THAT THERE IS INDEED A CREATING,
           DIRECTING AND CONTROLLING DIVINE POWER AND AN IMMORTALITY OF
           THE SOUL. THROUGHOUT THE AGES, ALL RACES AND ALL PEOPLES HAVE
           INSTINCTIVELY SO BELIEVED. S IT IS THE BECAUSE SIS OF ALL

           RELIGIONS, BE THEY HEATHEN, MOHABIDIN, HEBREW OR CHRISTIAN. IT
           IS BELIEVED BY SAVAGE TRIBES AND BY SEMICIVILIZED AND CIVILIZED
           NATIONS, BY THOSWHO BELIEVE IN MANY GODS AND BY THOSE WHO
           BELIEVE IN ONE GOD. ATHIESTS ARE AND ALWAYS HAVE BEEN FEW IN
           NUMBER. BUT BEYOND ALL CREDULITY IS THE CREDULOUSNESS OF
           ATHIEST WHOSE BELIEVE THAT CHANCE COULD MAKE THE WORLD WHEN IT

           CANNOT BUILD A HOUSE. SO, MR. PRESIDENT, AS LONG LONGFELLOW
           SAID, "THERE IS NO DEATHS. WHAT SEEMS SO IS TRANSITION. THIS
           LIFE OF MORTAL BREATH IS BUT A SUBURB OF THE LIFE ELITION WHOSE
           PORTAL WE CALL DEATH." MR. PRESIDENT, WE HAVE HEARD THE STORY

           OF AN OLD KING IN THE MIDDLE AGES WHO HAD HIS BARONS AT A GREAT
           BING KET -- BANK WET. THEY WERE QUALIFYING THEIR BUMPS AVAIL.
           IT WAS A BITTER NIGHT OUTSIDE, THE STORM RAGED, THE SNOW WAS
           FALLING FURIOUSLY, AND SUDDENLY INTO THE RUDE CHAMBER IN WHICH

           THEY WERE GATHERED THERE FLEW THROUGH SOME CRACK OR CREVASSE IN
           THE ROOF A LITTLE BIRD. BLINDED BY THE LIGHT AND PERPLEXED, IT
           FLEW WILDLY HERE AND THERE AND BEAT ITSELF AGAINST THE RUDE
           BEAMS. FINALLY, IT FOUND ANOTHER CREVASSE AND OUT IT -- IT
           FOUND ANOTHER CREVASSE AND OUT IT WENT INTO THE NIGHT AGAIN.

           THE OLD KING ADVANCED IN YEARS SPOKE TO HIS BARONS AND SAID,
           "THAT BIRD IS LIKE A LIFE. IT COMES FROM OUT OF THE NIGHT. IT
           FLITS AND FLIES AROUND A LITTLE WHILE, BLINDED BY THE LIGHT AND
           THEN IT GOES BACK, OUT INTO THE NIGHT AGAIN." AND SO, MR.
           PRESIDENT, MY FRIEND FRIEND, ABRAHAM RIBICOFF, HAS GONE TO WHAT

           HAMLET SAID WAS THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY FROM WHO'S BORN --
           FROM WHOSE BORNE NO TRAVELER RETURNS. BUT I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT
           THE CREATOR WHO STOOPS TO GIVE TO THE SE BUSH, WHOSE WITHERED
           BLOSSOMS FLOAT UPON THE AUTUMN BREEZE, THE SWEET ASSURANCE OF
           ANOTHER SPRINGTIME, HAS RECEIVED INTO HIS BOSOM A MAN WHO WAS
           MY FRIEND, WHO LOVED HIS COUNTRY AND WHO LOVED HIS FELLOW MAN.

           RICH AND POOR, HIGH AND LOW, WHO NEITHER LOOKED UP TO THE RICH
           NOR DOWN ON THE POOR, ABRAHAM ALEXANDER RIBICOFF. AND TO HIS
           DEAR WIFE, CASIE, A GRACEFUL, CHARMING, NOBLE WOMAN WOMAN, MY
           WIFE AND I -- MY WIFE IRMA AND I EXTEND OUR SYMPATHY RAND OUR

           LOVE -- AND OUR LOVE. SO LET FATE DO HER WORST. THERE ARE
           RELICS OF JOY, BRIGHT DREAMS OF THE PAST THAT SHE CANNOT
           DESTROY, THAT COME IN THE NIGHTTIME OF SORROW AND CARE AND
           BRING BACK THE FEATUS THAT JOY USED TO WEAR, LONG, LONG BE MY
           HEART WITH SUCH MEMORIES FILLED, LIKE THE VASE IN WHICH ROSES
           HAVE ONCE BEEN DISTILLED, YOU MAY BREAK, YOU MAY SHATTER THE

           VASE IF YOU WILL WILL, BUT THE SCENT OF THE ROSES WILL HANG
           ROUND IT STILL. MR. PRESIDENT, I YIELD THE FLOOR. I SUGGEST THE
           ABSENCE OF A QUORUM.
           

           THE PRESIDING OFFICER: THE
           
           CLERK WILL CALL THE ROLL.
           
{END: 1998/03/02 TIME: 12-45 , Mon.  105TH SENATE, SECOND SESSION}