HONORING PRESIDENT GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH

On 2018-12-10, Representative Randy K. Weber, Sr. (R-TX-14) delivered a floor speech titled "HONORING PRESIDENT GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH" in the House.

HONORING PRESIDENT GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH

Congressional Record, Volume 164 Issue 194 (Monday, December 10, 2018) [Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 194 (Monday, December 10, 2018)] [House] [Pages H9809-H9814] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] HONORING PRESIDENT GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Williams) is recognized for the remainder of the hour as the designee of the majority leader. Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. Speaker, I am reminded of a time in Texas when we were at a breakfast, and we had two groups. We had a group that was very close to Jeb Bush, the Governor of Florida, and one that was close to George W. Bush. Mrs. Bush was our guest speaker, and she spoke. When she opened up for questions, one of the questions was: Mrs. Bush, a lot of us in here know Jeb better than George; we know George better than Jeb. How are they alike? How do they differ? Mrs. Bush said she had been blessed to have a great family, but she said these words: You could put all my boys together, and they would not equal their father. I thought that was powerful. On November 30, 2018, America lost a great servant, and I lost a great friend. President Bush epitomized everything wonderful about America, and like his country, he was tough, strong, and kind. Over the years, I was able to get to know the President and his family very well. My family and I had the opportunity to visit them in Kennebunkport many summers. Our days were spent playing basketball and sailing on the water, sharing and listening to President Bush's stories until the sun went down. I remember one basketball game. My daughters were playing, and they didn't have any tennis shoes. Mrs. Bush went and got her tennis shoes and gave them to my daughters. When they began to shoot, there were vines that had grown up on the basketball goal, and she made the President get hedge clippers and clip the vines down before the girls could shoot baskets. What a man he was. I am grateful for these priceless moments with President Bush that exist now only as memories, and great memories. In addition to traveling together as friends, we also shared a love for baseball. I was proud to be awarded with his award, the George H.W. Bush Distinguished Alumnus Award, by the National College Baseball Hall of Fame. To this day, I wear a ring that has his name on it. It was during our baseball days that something very interesting happened. We were having lunch one day in his office at College Station, and it was myself; President Bush; Jean Becker, his chief of staff; and Drake McLane, who owned the Astros. President Bush, just out of nowhere, said: I need to bring something up that I have gotten no credit for. Ms. Becker said: No, don't go there, Mr. President. He said: No, I am going to go there. {time} 1930 And Ms. Becker said: No, don't go there, Mr. President. And he said: No, I am going to go there. There is plenty of time between that. He said: I said a statement that I get no credit for, and that statement is, ``You da man.'' He explained that he was at an Astros game--it was actually the Colt .45s in 1961--and they had a player named Rusty Staub. Rusty Staub wanted to meet President Bush. After the game, Staub came toward President Bush, who then was not President, and President Bush said: I don't know why I said it and don't know what it meant, but when he came closer to me, I said, ``You da man.'' Drayton McLane said: Well, if you haven't got any credit for it, we are playing the Dodgers tomorrow night, we will put on the diamond vision your picture, and we will put, ``You da man.'' The next night, they did, and he got that credit for ``You da man.'' So I would just say to the President, and I think we would all agree: Mr. President, you da man. We had a relationship that was very unique and very dear to my heart. This great man served as a mentor to me and had a huge impact on my life. In fact, he was the reason I am standing here before all of you today. When I was contemplating running to represent Texas' 25th Congressional District, I called President Bush for advice. He encouraged me to run and gave me the push that I needed. I will never forget it. Years ago, I announced my congressional campaign in his office with him by my side sitting next to me, and the rest in my world is history. I am forever grateful to President Bush. He has been an inspiration throughout my life. He has been like a father. Whether it be in my faith or in my path to public service, he was very kind to me. He was the first person to call me while I was in the hospital after the baseball shooting back in June of 2016. He said he was praying for me and praying for our team. Two days later, he called to check on me again. He has always answered the phone to offer his sage wisdom when I called and given me his advice, and I truly miss him terribly. Over a week has gone by now that our country has been without one of the greatest Americans to ever live. This is an immeasurable loss for America, but I am comforted knowing that he has been reunited with his beloved Barbara and their daughter Robin. It has been a true honor to experience life with President Bush in it. Our country is better because of him, I am better because of him, and my family is better because of him. He once said, and we have all heard it: Public service is the most noble calling of all. And he answered that call. Each and every day, I am praying for the entire Bush family, as we all are, and I hope they find peace during this difficult time. One more story. We were in Fort Worth one day and he spoke. He found out that one of our civic leaders was not doing well, from a health standpoint. We got in the car. He had his cell phone, and he dialed the number. A lady that worked in his house answered the phone, and he asked to speak to this gentleman. She held a minute, and the wife of this gentleman got on the phone. He said: This is President Bush. I would like to speak to your husband. She said: He cannot speak. He said: Well, take this phone into his bedroom right now, and I want to tell him I love him. That is the kind of man President Bush was. So God bless President Bush, God bless this family, and God bless America. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas, (Mr. Culberson), who I think represents where President Bush lives. Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. In 18 years, it has been my extraordinary privilege to represent the people of District 7. I have had the world's best role model as a Congressman. My predecessor, George H.W. Bush, was the first Congressman to represent District 7. He, just as he was to Roger Williams and as he was to Kevin [[Page H9810]] Brady, has been not only a role model to me, but an adviser who helped to guide me when I first decided to run for office. He has always been there for me to offer advice every step of the way. He is an extraordinary role model. Everyone who knew him understood immediately that they were in the presence of someone extraordinary. As Mark McKinnon remembers: ``George H.W. Bush will be remembered by history as a deeply accomplished public servant. But the many of us who were lucky enough to pass through his orbit will remember him for his uncommon grace and love toward family and friends.'' The editor-in-chief of Texas Monthly once said of George H.W. Bush that it is clear there is a narrative that runs through the Bush family: ``be polite, treat people decently.'' This came from his father and from his mother. They passed it on to their children. He remembers: ``Every encounter I ever had with George W. Bush, whether it was Governor Bush or President Bush 43 or ex-President Bush, he was the same guy. He is very much his father's son, and all of us who are parents hope that whatever else we don't do right, the thing we do do right is to convey the fundamental values of who we are and who we're supposed to be to our kids.'' One of the things that survives about George Bush, the elder, is the fact that he passed along to his own children that same decency, that same line of decency that he learned from his parents. In fact, Jeb Bush once said: How great is this country that it could elect a man as fine as our dad to be President? If we remember what George W. said as he accepted the Presidential nomination in the year 2000, President Bush 43 said, as he accepted the nomination: ``My father was the last President of a great generation, generation of Americans who stormed beaches, liberated concentration camps, and delivered us from evil. Some never came home. Those who did put their medals in drawers, went to work and built on a heroic scale highways and universities, suburbs and factories, great cities and grand alliances, the strong foundations of an American century.'' George H.W. Bush brought the Cold War to a peaceful conclusion, successfully managing the fall of the Berlin Wall, the reunification of Germany, and the end of the Soviet Union without provoking violence from communist bitter enders. In the first Gulf War, George H.W. Bush established that on his watch America would not retreat from the world but would intervene decisively when the global balance of power was in jeopardy. His life was spent in the service of his Nation, and his spirit of conciliation, common sense, and love of country will stand him in strong stead through the ebbs and flows of posterity's judgment. On that score, George H.W. Bush was a uniquely good man. In a political universe where good men are hard to come by, there was bipartisan consensus a quarter century after he left the White House. We will miss this great, good man, and America and Texas are far, far better that he lived and he served his Nation so well. Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton), the dean of our Texas delegation. Mr. BARTON. Mr. Speaker,