becoming more and more bloody, we have to find more and more people that are willing to entertain our values. when when solutions, a common community. we have seen ample evidence, ever since the end of world war two that whenever we fight on at their own turf, we can defeat the strong. particularly if the week did not represent a nation state. .

you could have quit. you could have given up. you and ginger started out in the civil rights movement and spent half the 1980's being derided as a closet conservative who didn't care about that. but you didn't give up. and you now have evidence that what you did works. you have the compliments that people you worked with for years and policies you advocated have been embraced by our new president and he is succeeding and doing a good job with them. you have the sure knowledge that as long as people are people, we will need a new generation to pick up the torch you carried so nobodyably.

i would never have become president without you and the d.l.c., i know that. but the most important thing is, when i was fortunate enough to win, from the transition you worked on until the day you left office, i never one day had to wake up in the morning wondering what i was going to do because you helped me to realize the importance of ideas and policies and answering the simple question, how are you going to turn your good intentions into real changes in people's lives? most people in politics debate what are they going to do and how much are we going to spend on it? we spend almost no time debating, what do we propose to do it, whatever -- how do we propose to do it, whatever it is. you spend your time in the how business, that's what you got me into, that's what i try to

do with my foundation. i owe you more than i can ever say and love you more than you can know. those of you who knew what the last 25 years were like know they were much better than they would have been without al from and the d.l.c. thank you and god bless you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009]

>> mr. president, thank you. sit down and don't worry, i'm not going to talk now, you can eat your dinner. i want to thank you because you honor me by your presence here. we've done a lot of good things and sometimes, as you said, it wasn't always appreciated. but when i think about what you did to modernize progressive governance, it really saved progressive governance not only in this country but all over the world.

i don't think we can thank you enough. that is the most incredible legacy anybody can ever have and i'm just honored that you're my friend. thank you. [applause] >> good evening. i first met al from and the d.l.c. nearly a decade ago as a senate staffer working for gene carnahan. the contact was both direct, our staff worked closely with theirs on a variety of issues we attended the excellent d.l.c. policy retreats, but it was also indirect.

our missouri police department called us frequently about the cops program, young people called about americorps and the earned income tax credit, d.l.c. programs, without ever mentioning the deform l.c. the political current al created had become so strong it was mainstream and seminal. in a place like missouri, he could provide direction for national leaders like dick gephardt, high-profile governors like mel carnahan, for jean carnahan in her tenure in the senate and state legislators like me, 1/2 gatting the -- navigating the rocky waters of a local political career. al has given us through the d.l.c. a consistently invaluable repository of ideas for the laboratory of the 50 states. through the national conversations, the new d.l.c. fellows program, or simply

through the d.l.c. website, he invites us in and sends us out armed with ideas that strengthen our communities, keep our family safe, implement fiscal discipline, ect our children and spur on economic development. through the decade i have known him, just one small chapter, i know, i have witnessed the genius of his short and long-term vision, a powerful reminder of the capacity of one person to impact systemic change. with his magnetic intensity, he is constantly seeking and finding new challenges, pushing the frontier a little farther. now, of course, the responsibility is ours to meet his challenge. the tremendous challenge of al from to move beyond politics to build and enhance a culture of citizenship and leadership. as a d.l.c. fellow, i've had the opportunity to join 24 other young elected officials from around the country to discuss intensely legislative

and policy concepts, but also the obligation of an individual to the community. the responsibility of elected office, values, and ethics. for me, that is what the gift of al has always been about, not a political label but the high ideals of humanity he translates into trangable public policy he's an exceptional human being. there's an old saying that i have always liked that when it's cold outside, there are two ways to warm yourself. you can either put on a fur coat or you can light a fire and the difference is that when you put on the fur coat, it warms only yourself, but when you light a fire, it warms everyone around you. through his political work, al lit a fire that has warmed all of us. al, your leadership has been a tremendous privilege, we are all grateful and we will miss you. [applause]

[applause] >> rachel operates on the theory that i'm a man who needs no introduction. my fellow masochists -- why are you here? i was sitting with a beautiful woman, actually two beautiful women, melissa maxfield from comcast and rachel stockwell

who used to work for david mccurdy, who now is my policy director, and i got a call that david obey decided to make some moves on the house floor and i had to go there. i missed dinner. tom vilsack would not feel nearly so bad now, because i have to speak now after the film, after bill, and after everybody but al has gone home. he only stayed because i said i'd say nice things. i have known al from for four decades. he and i started to work on capitol hill together, he for a senator from maryland, and me for a senator from maryland. he for senator joe tidings, me for senator daniel brewster. it was extraordinary experiences for us both.

we were young men interested in politics and in policy and in our country's well-being. al from and i went separate ways for a while. i went to the maryland state senate, al did work in other places. but then in 1981, i had the good fnch to be re-elected to the congress of the united states. one of the member theefs congress of the united states was a gentleman from louisiana, his name was gillis long. he was a member of the rules committee. he had a young man who worked for him, you guessed it, al from. al from, i'm sure, was responsible for my being appointed to a committee and the first days i went to the congress of the united states, it was called the committee on party effectiveness. it was run by al from. and al from took me under his wing and deck gephardt was a member of the committee on

party effectiveness, les aspen was a member, tim worth was a member, i could go on, names that you all know, norm dicks, it was an extraordinary group. i was proud to be added to that rank. a few years went by, one of the things we talked about in the committee of party effectiveness was that too many democrats thought that we democrats had lost touch with, people work not representing their values or vision. of what our country ought to be and what this party ought to be about this young man, al from, who i had known at that point in time for over a decade decided that we would start an organization that would represent the mainstream of our party and the mainstream thinking in america about how we got from where we were to

where we needed to be. al from was an example that ideas make a difference. ideas make an impact. ideas can change a state, a community, a congress, a country. but you need somebody to spark those ideas to organize those with ideas, and to marshal those ideas. john kennedy once said that winston churchill marshaled the english language and sent it into battle in world war ii. there's much truth in that. to the extent that there's truth in that, there's also truth that al from took a bunch of us who were very interested, some of whom you've seen here, some of whom were back stage, chuck robb, sam nunn, dick gephardt, and i was one of the first people in that

organization and al made us toady up $1,000 apiece. which now seems like a small sum, but i will tell you back in 1985 or 1986? 1985 seemed like a very large sum. my campaign account was not nearly as large as luckily it is today. and we were very proud of that organization. it was somewhat controversial. and it has remained controversial because al has kept the organization through many great leaders like bill clinton, like harold ford, is harold still here? if harold were speaking, he would have stayed. i guarantee you. tell him i said so, will you please? just yell at the television when you see him come on. but al from kept the faith and kept the focus. and made an extraordinary difference in terms of responsibility, in terms of

community and opportunity and education, in terms of commitment to national security. the values that americans knew were important to build our country and were necessary to maintain our country and make it even greater. so i'm here tonight with all of you to honor someone who has made such a difference in our country. a citizen who took his responsibility extraordinarily important to him. a person who preached personal responsibility but more importantly took personal responsibility. personal responsibility to make a difference. al, you have made a difference. you have made a difference corporately with this organization, you've made a difference in my life. you've made a difference in the lives of all with whom you've worked. you and your beautiful bride have been friends for a very long period of time and i'm here on behalf of all of us who

you have touched and who you have made wiser and more effective in the service we tried to perform for this country. to say thank you. thank you from a grateful majority leader, grateful member of congress but more importantly a grateful friend. thank you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, al from. [applause] >> steny, thank you very much. you know, steny, i still have that first check.

i've been going through my old records, i've got a copy of it. it actually cleared. you know, first of all, i want to thank everybody for coming. i know the hour is late and i'm not going to talk long tonight. if you can believe that. but i just -- i'm just so overwhelmed and humbled by the tributes. rachel, thank you. president clinton, harold, bruce, my friend danny sim el, rabbi sim el, tom vilsack, thank you for those wonderful tributes and really for everybody still here and everybody who was in this room tonight. y'all played such a big part in my life, such a big part in the success of the d.l.c., and in the -- such a big part in the new democrat movement.

so thank you. i am just fondly and eternal -- profoundly and eternally grateful to all of you. i've tried to get around and talk to as many of you as i could individually and obviously i can't. i can tell by who is here who doesn't have to go to work tomorrow. i just have to say a couple of things about some very special people. first, to ginger, my wife, the love of my life and to my daughters -- [applause] jenny and sara. thank you for your love and patience all these years. one of the things i've been doing is going through old records. i look at the schedules. i cannot believe that ginger lived through all of that. thank you for sticking with me for the last 41 years. i've already thank that --

thanked president clinton, but as i said when he finished, his leadership in mod herbizing progressive politics in america saved progressive governance in this country and in the world. that is such an incredible legacy. i'm honored to be just a small part of that. gillis long, who steny mentioned, started the effort to resuscitate the democratic party and the house democratic caucus four years before there was a d.l.c. he was my mentor and my friend. and though he died a month before it started, without his leadership, his courage and his vision, the d.l.c. would never have gotten off the ground. kathy long is with us, george has been the photographer and janis is here, and i'm sure gillis is smiling on us tonight. [applause]

without my friend chuck robb, i wouldn't be here. he personally promised to pay my salary for a year even if the d.l.c. didn't last that long and those of you who were rarned at the -- around at the beginning know there was plenty of doubt as to whether it would. that was pretty important to a struggling capitol hill staffer with two young daughters and a big mortgage and something i will never forget. thank you, chuck robb. [applause] from the very beginning, will marshall has provided much of the intellectual capital of the new democrat movement. many of the ideas that define new democrats today are grounded in the work that will has done as policy director of the d.l.c. and president of the progressive policy institute. thank you, will marshall.

to the chairs of the d.l.c., gickgep -- dick gephardt, chuck, sam nunn, president clinton, johnny bro, evan bayh tom vilsack and evan ford jr. thank you for all you've done. for those of you still around here, thank you for your perseverance. i appreciate it very much. so many people and so many of you have supported the d.l.c. and the p.p.i. over the years and believe me, i appreciate it very much. i appreciate every hard-earned dollar you gave us and i thank you one and all. thanks as well to the hundreds of people who worked or interned for the d.l.c. your services made an incredible difference and i hope you're proud of it. i'm very proud of what you contributed. i just want to say a special word at bruce reid, the next,

and thank him, the next leader of the deform l.c. the d.l.c. could not be in better hands. bruce reid is an idea man's idea man. he possesses a rare blend of brilliance, humor, and humility. to be honest, after his eight years in the white house, i never thought i'd leuer him back to the d.l.c. he was harder to recruit than bill clinton. but i always believed bruce was the person to lead the d.l.c. into a new era and i could not be more delighted that he is doing so. thank you, bruce, for giving the d.l.c. a great future and you're going to make the d.l.c. an important source of new democrat ideas for president obama. [applause] the last 14 years have been a blessing for me, and i'm not going to detail every one of them.

the d.l.c. has far exceeded any dreams that i could have had for it when we began. and you've heard plenty about that tonight so i'm not going to talk about that. what i want to say a few words about are some of the beliefs and values that guided me. that i tried to instill in the d.l.c. and that i hope bruce -- the d.l.c. will continue to reflect under bruce's leadership. first, call me old fashioned, but i still believe that substance matters. that values and ideas matter. i believe that in politics, in the end, you rise and fall on what you believe in and what you stand for. if you stand for good things, for strong values and high ideals, for ideas that will make this country better, the american people will support you. if you don't, they won't. it's just that simple.

the d.l. -- that has been the animating principle of the d.l.c. and i would argue the foundation of our political success. ideas we championed and you've had a litany of them today from national service and expanded earned income tax credit, reform -- welfare reform, charter schools, expanding trade, fiscal responsibility, modernizing government, all of them changed the -- changed america for the better and the american people rewarded us and our party for that. second, i believe in two values that are too often in short supply in this city. loyalty and civility. i learned loyalty by example nearly 40 years ago from my friend, the man you just heard, steny hoyer. [applause] i was working for senator joe tidings, as steny indicated,

and i don't know if he's still here, he was here earlier tonight. steny was a young state senator at that time from prince georges county. in the waning day of joe tidings losing 1970 campaign we held a press conference and some of you might remember this, in the carol arms hotel on capitol hill. no tv cameras came but steny was standing alone in the back of the room. when i asked steny why he was there, he simply said, i was with joe tidings at the beginning, and i'll be with joe tidings at the very end. i have never forgotten that lesson and i hope i never will. my friend, joe lieberman, was here. and i was in hartford the night that he lost his primary because i wanted to be with him because he was my friend and he has given so much to this country and thank god he was able to win that election and come back to the u.s. senate. but i learned that lesson from steny hoyer.

those who knew me best know that i'm not one to shy away from a fight. ginger says i'm down right combative. lord knows i'm a democrat. i've never voted for a republican in my life and i probably never will. but i'm disgusted with the polarization and incivility that has come to define our politics and i deeply believe that the dawning challenges that president obama faces and that america faces today require transformational, post-partisan solutions that one party alone cannot produce. history has shown time after time that transformational reforms most often come with bipartisan support. social security, the g.i. bill, the civil rights acts, reforms that fundamentally transformed

american life, all passed congress with huge majorities of members of both parties. my old boss ed muskey talk -- taught me about that. he sad had a rule, we can never introduce a piece of major legislation without having a republican as the principal co-sponsor. that doesn't mean we can't argue with the other party about whose ideas are best. we certainly can do that and i love to do it. but we also can do it civilly. so in the end, we can resolve our differences and hopefully both support solutions in the national interest. we do all live in the same country. as my friend jack kemp once told me, remember, we're political adversaries, not enemies. third, no value or idea we fought for at the d.l.c. was

more powerful or more central to my being than our belief in the american dream. and how could it be any different? my father was an immigrant from eastern europe. my mother was a first generation american whose father came to america as a peddler. we had enough, but not a lot. my biggest political thrill as a child was meeting the mayor of south bend. when he came to our apartment building to drive a voter to the polls. i celebrated my 50th birthday in the state dining room at the white house at a party hosted by the president and first lady. i have lived the american dream. [applause] that's why i tried so hard from my days in the war on poverty

in the 1960's when i met ginger, to my time at the d.l.c., to expand the american dream for all americans. i believe that is my responsibility. simply put, i believe that every american who works hard and plays by the rules should have the freedom and opportunity to rise as far as his or her god-given talents will allow and the responsibility to take advantage of that opportunity. i believe those of us who have been blessed as i have and were privileged to hold positions of influence have the further responsibility to do our part to make it so. to me, reconnecting the democratic party with the american dream, with the principles of opportunity and responsibility, is the most