babies. we came in in a big wave, won a lot of elections and things like that. and in fact, in iowa that year elected a u.s., democratic u.s. senator, and every house seat -- i think there were six at that time, six house seats all went democratic except one, and that was the seat that chuck grassley won that year bucking the trend, bucking the tide in 1974. so it's kind of a funny thing, chuck. i speak to my friend across the aisle here, that a lot of times people this year have said all you watergate babies are gone now, you and max baucus and chris dodd and then on the house side george miller and henry waxman.

so this is the last of the watergate babies. i always have to remind them, i say there's one left. who's that, they say? it's a republican. a republican? who's that? my colleague from iowa, chuck grassley is sort of, i say, the last man standing from that class of 1974. i think it's again, a tribute to senator grassley that through all these years he has won the hearts and minds of the people of iowa, been elected and reelected. he came to the senate before i did. he came in 1981 and i came in 1984. so i'd like to think that we at least share in common at least bucking the trend a little bit or the tide because in 1984 someone said harkin, you had a run for the senate in 1984 because there will be a big democratic landslide here. so i ran and whoa, boy, the tide

was just the opposite. it was a reagan landslide here but i was fortunate enough to be able to win elections. so i think the the two of us share sort of bucking the tide, so to speak, to get into office when we ran. but it's been a great association through all these years. as i stand here today on my 75th birthday, i guess when you're this age, i think you think of -- i have two kind of emotions. one, i wonder where the heck did all the years go and how come they went so fast. sometimes i wish i can turn the clock back and do it again. the other side is the irish side of me. any time you're on this side of the grass you have a good day. i want to say since that time we

took our oath of office together, i think it was january 4 of 1975, we have served together both in the house and in the senate, and a lot of time on the same committee, agriculture committee, working a lot on different agriculture bills. i remember back in the 1980's working on the credit bill at that time when so many farmers were under water. so as the senator said, it's been a great honor and a privilege to represent the people of iowa. as he mentioned, we belong to different parties. we have different philosophies of approach of government. but i like to think that we share a down-to-earth, common sense iowa way of looking at the world. iowans, we're not all monolithic out there. we're not all one philosophy or the other philosophy. sometimes i find conservative friends of mine in iowa may have a more liberal view of one thing and then i find liberals in iowa

have a more conservative view of something else. so people in iowa, as my friend said, they think a lot of about these things and they take these tingz -- things into consideration. a lot of people say how can someone elect someone who is conservative and someone who is liberal in iowa? i think there's common strains where there's a cross confluence of maybe a conservative approach and a liberal approach. so, again, i just say to my friend, i value his friendship and his counsel through all these years, even though, again, as my friend said, we approach things maybe from a different philosophical standpoint. that's fine. that's okay. but we've never, we've never let a disagreement on philosophy ever be the last word between us or the final word; anything like that.

it's always well, that's that. what's next? the one thing, i really appreciate what my friend said, and that is when it comes to iowa, you don't find any daylight, when it comes to disasters, what we can do for iowa and iowans, we have had a wonderful relationship through all these years and it is one that i have cherished very much. i heard my friend -- i was making snoats -- making notes, say sometimes they say he's a cold hearted conservative and i'm a bleeding heart liberal. chuck grassley is not a cold heart the conservative. he cares deeply about the people. he cares deeply about the people of iowa. i hope i'm not a bleeding heart liberal. i hope i'm sort of a liberal that believes in individual responsibility. individual responsibility.

so my friend has been a very caring conservative through all these years. i think together we've achieved important things for our state: chick -- economic development, rural development, all these things we worked together for iowa. i'm proud of the fact that iowa right now produces 25% of our energy comes from wind energy in iowa and we produced the blades, the turbines and everything in iowa and all these jobs there. that's something we have worked together on through all these years. so again, people ask me about leaving the senate. well, it was my decision. but i said at the time, almost two years ago i said i wasn't running again. i said i will not -- you'll never hear me ever say bad things about the senate or denounce the senate or saying things -- i love the senate. this is a wonderful institution. yeah, we have a few bumps in the road once in a while but that's

what to be expected in a legislative process representing 300 million people in this country. but i.t. the friendships you form here, the alliances, the friendships, the working together. i've often said that as a progressive, i wanted to go this far this fast and the conservatives want to go this far this slow. but together, working together, you can make progress -- you can make progress. and that's what i think both senator grassley and i have worked together on, to try to make progress. but especially for the people of iowa. and so i thank him for his kind words. i thank you. i know we're not supposed to say this on the senate floor. we're always supposed to speak in the third person. but i never wanted to follow all the rules anyway, so i can speak directly and say, thank you very much, chuck grassley, for friendship, for counsel, for working together through all these years.

i'm going to miss that relationship and working on the senate floor, but i will be in iowa. i'll be working again with the harkin institute at the university. i'll be spending a lot of time on disability policy and advancing the cause of people with disabilities in some way, shape, or form -- i don't know exactly house, but in some way, in that way -- and i hope -- i just want to say this to my friend. i hope that at some time, since this is a nonpartisan institute, we have a great board of directors -- in fact, the former chair of the iowan republican party is on the board of the institute -- we want to keep it nonpartisan. i would like to ask my friend to come and speak at and be -- perhaps lead a discussion sometime at the institute at university. i would be honored if my friend

would do that, if sometime down the road -- i don't know when. we can work it out. i think you would be well-received and i think young people at drake need to hear the conservative side of the story as well as the liberal side of the story. they need to have that kind of input. so i hope we can work that out. let me just say again that i know in the future that you and your wonderful wife barbara, a great, wonderful person, that you and barbara and ruth and i will maintain friendships and will maintain our connections as we move into the future, and any way that we can ever work together for the benefit of iowans, just let me know and i'll be glad to be your lieutenant -- or something out there in the field out there in iowa sometime. but thank you so very much for so many years of counsel and friendship and working

>> we will stick with members of congress and we will stick with new york democrat carolyn mccarthy. congressman -- is retiring after three decades in office. congressman mccarthy has served nine terms in the house, during her interview she called on younger members of her party to move up the caucus latter saying that current leaders need to know when it is time to move on. here is a portion. >> we have a lot of talented just,r members, it is not by the way, mrs. pelosi. i think she has been a great leader. she is very good at raising money, i was never good at that. but they have t