mikulski. as she set on the stump, i might be short but i will not be overlooked. she is not been and i doubt she ever will be. maybe that has something to do with the mantra she follows, do or do not, there is no try. not surprisingly, this star wars fan takes advice from master yoda. also her great grandmother who emigrated from poland with hope and little else. hope that her family might one day experience this country's many freedoms and opportunities. i know she would be proud of her great-grandmother -- great-granddaughter today. gourmet.er crab cake the senior senator from maryland. here's what we come to know about senator mikulski. .er word is her bond she is a passionate advocate for the causes she supports and good luck stopping her once she puts her mind to something. you could safe the same thing about another barbara, too.

boxer. like her colleague from maryland, she is hardly the tallest member around here. but she has gotten into the habit -- but she is not in the habit of being overlooked either. that,xer box helps with of course. that is what she stands on at present conferences to give her more height and if that stands -- sounds familiar it is because the box once served as an veep.ation for hbo's and a good thing she has a sense of humor, she knows help either can go run here. that.ten relies on more than 20 years in a job i love, she wrote, thank you to california and the lord above. you get the picture. here's the key line, as long as there are issues i will never

of my -- the meaning life. sure sounds like the senator boxer i know. it is not easy to find common ground run here, it takes hard work. stopkes negotiation will it often takes those intangibles, too. like comic relief. so enter another senator. i will miss the gym and barbara show when it comes to an end next year especially after such a story to run over a pw. one day she is a bus, the next day him. they are the best of health, the fiercest of rivals, they worked together on everything and agree on almost nothing. sounds like a promise for a buddy comedy from the 1980's but here what it is -- a political master stroke. the unlikeliest of partnerships led to the first significant environmental reform law in decades. it also led to senate passage of the waterways infrastructure

bill that will support important projects across the country. and though some will refer to them as an odd couple, i would call them smart. i remember senator enough telling me how much he enjoyed working with senator boxer and how their were things they can actually agree on so i made a note of it and kept out -- kept an eye out for an opportunity of my own. it finally happened. in this very congress. senator boxer and he and i worked together to pass the longest infrastructure bill in nearly two decades. this is not something critics thought would be done and we each harbored our own doubts and yet a bill that repeatedly to -- threaten to come apart never did. as senator boxer put it, it was the impossible dream and it succeeded because we worked in good eighth, hung together, and

focused on areas where we did a great and not just ones where we disagree. that is what happens around here when the senate is working the way it should. we work through political differences and come together on solutions for the american people. is one reason why nearly a quarter-century century later, senator boxer says she is leaving the senate with a full heart. i know she is leaving what the respect of many of her colleagues including some she when she have expected came here. let me finish with some five barbara mikulski gave to the young barbara boxer as she contemplated her first senate run. run, senator mikulski said, it will be the tablet thing you ever do but she added, it will also be the best thing you will ever do. i think this is something we can all relate to regardless of which party we belong to,

regardless of which state we come from, at the end of the day we all came here to accomplish things are the people we represent even if we have different ideas on how to do them. so thankfully, there should be no disagreement over this next task. i ask all senators to join me in colleagues for their service and join me in wishing them good luck as they begin their next chapters of their lives. crying stem credit leader. - democratic leader. >> i apologize. but id final speeches need to words about president obama. it has been hard to imagine today. it was not that long ago barack obama was the illinois

legislator with the unusual name. i still remember the first time i heard that name. i was in the house chamber. where members congregated and one of the people i shared the room with was a longtime , appellatengressman court judge, president clinton paused chief legal officer and i had known that republican senator peter fitzgerald decided not to run for election after one term. and the judge turned to me and said, i know the perfect person to fill that open seat. who could that be, i said. he said, barack obama. i said, what? he said, barack obama. i said, who? can the name is

that? he said, it is one of the most talented people i have ever met in all my years. that said a lot to me. at the time, i smiled. it did not take long before he understood what he said to me. won that election to the senate. he came from nowhere, a man with an unusual name, and once he was here it was obvious he was the real deal. communicate was and is stunning. i can remember one of the first speeches he gave in the senate. on george bush's policy regarding the middle east war. it was eloquent, thoughtful, tolerant. i was so impressed at following was waych -- the seat

back there. i walked up to him and i said, -- he was sitting, i was standing looking over him -- and they said, senator that was really terrific. that was really good. and i will never forget his response. he looked at me without hesitation, without any braggadocio, no conceit. and with humility, looked up to me and said, i have a gift. it wasn't a boast. it was a fact. i've never met anyone with the ability to communicate as well as barack obama. ,hether it is in his writing speaking to huge and crowds of tens of thousands of people or small crowds or someone on a one-on-one basis, he is without equal when it comes to communicating. well-known,on was

even before he came to the senate. he had written a book, a bestseller, "dreams from my father." it was a decade before arriving here in the senate. like his 2006 a book, "the book wasof hope," this full of lyrical, insightful .riting in "dreams of my father" hero the story we have all come to know you're born in -- he wrote a story we have all come to know. he was raised by his grandparents in hawaii. his mother and grandparents set positive examples for him. ,hey pushed him to do better to be the menu was born to be. that upbringing would serve him well. barack obama went to some of the elite schools in the world, undergrad columbia, an honor student.

harvard law school. graduated with distinction. he was the number one guy in the very prestigious law school. even then, his reputation for bringing people together and his gift for communication was renowned. he continued to excel after law school and became a professor of constitutional law at one of the mac is great law schools. he became a community organizer, as he has talked about a lot. he became an illinois state senator before giving one of the most dramatic speeches in american history. throughout it