i totally miss robert byrd, ted kennedy. i will say, i have a question as to when the dow are important amendments or an amendment to -- when there are important amendments or an amendment to an amendment to bill, why the senators don't have to be in there and listen to this. there are great points on actually both sites. i am a democrat, but i look at both sides. but they are preaching to the choir, and i feel like it is kind of planned. they come in, they vote, they leave, and you need to be an attorney to understand all the clotures and the process you go through. but it is an incredible opportunity for american citizens, or even if you are not an american, to be able to have this opportunity to see what is going on before your eyes and to watch the speakers and to watch what they say and see what they say later. i just wish they all had to attend their votes instead of a vote and leave. i am truly appreciate it to have this opportunity. host: 10 we go back to your comment about keeping journals -- can we go back to your

i totally miss robert byrd, ted kennedy. i will say, i have a question as to when the dow are important amendments or an amendment to -- when there are important amendments or an amendment to an amendment to bill, why the senators don't have to be in there and listen to this. there are great points on actually both sites. i am a democrat, but i look at both sides. but they are preaching to the choir, and i feel like it is kind of planned. they come in, they vote, they leave, and you need to be an attorney to understand all the clotures and the process you go through. but it is an incredible opportunity for american citizens, or even if you are not an american, to be able to have this opportunity to see what is going on before your eyes and to watch the speakers and to watch what they say and see what they say later. i just wish they all had to attend their votes instead of a vote and leave. i am truly appreciate it to have this opportunity. host: 10 we go back to your comment about keeping journals -- can we go back to your

only claiming seventh place robert byrd the neon has more. for the seventh time the rugby sevens continental championships heed the russian capital although. the two time european champions russia will fall from their best soil having failed to make it to the one who are both were only destined to fight for fifth place. the russians got off to a very good start against france in the first place in the final. in seoul run here giving the home side and five new lead. it didn't take russia long to extend their lead to twelve points but the french men were in giving up. it will fly by the break forcing the russian bubble butt on the ski to do all he could to encourage his men although france managed to come from behind in the second half and battle to win taking them into the final twenty nineteen to score. some of the despite the oh come on pleased with the way my boys played they were giving their all and fighting to the end it's a game in which is didn't have the luck they had. both teams managed to earn their own arse in the end with france b

i totally miss robert byrd, ted kennedy. have to be in there and listen to this. there are great points on actually both sites. i am a democrat, but i look at both sides. but they are preaching to the choir, and i feel like it is kind of planned. they come in, they vote, they leave, and you need to be an attorney to understand all the clotures and the process you go through. but it is an incredible opportunity for american citizens, or even if you are not an american, to be able to have this opportunity to see what is going on before your eyes and to watch the speakers and to watch what they say and see what they say later. i just wish they all had to attend their votes instead of a vote and leave. i am truly appreciate it to have this opportunity. host: 10 we go back to your comment about keeping journals -- can we go back to your comment about keeping journals on every vote and bill? caller: yes, four years. host: do you transcribe what is going on? caller: the votes, how they voted, the senators' names. i have a new repre

and in a few minutes all of a sudden those side doors flung open and in strode senator robert byrd, and so here i'm giving my maiden speech and senator byrd is sitting his his seat, and as i finish, he says, "would the senator yield?" and i said, "of course, i yield to the senior senator from west virginia." and, senator byrd, on the top of his head, gives an oration about the history of maiden speeches in the senate. now, of course, that is indelibly etched in my memory, and surely the senator's maiden speech today is indelibly etched in his, and i congratulate him. i thank him for his personal friendship, i thank him also for the privilege of the professional relationship that we have. the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, very briefly, i've come to know senator rubio. we have early morning seminars. and we've come to know one another a little better. but i want to especially thank you for that speech because it was compleerl a speech with a lot of personal reflection on your own life and on the life of america. what you said will endure. there a

when i was first elected to the senate in 2002, the dean of the senate at that time was senator robert byrd who sat right on the aisle across the way, and i'll never forget the first day that i was -- as i was sworn in, i went over and introduced myself to senator byrd who was so well respected by everybody on both sides of the aisle and is without question the greatest historian within the senate that the senate has ever had, and he looked up at me and he said you hold senator russell's seat. i said yes, sir, that's right. he said my favorite senator was senator richard russell. and from then on, every time i would walk by senator byrd's seat when he was there, he would stop me and he would give me another anecdote about senator russell, about their close relationship and about what a huge impact senator russell had on our nation and on this institution during his 32 years of service. senator russell devoted his life to public service with only one desire: to be remembered as an honorable man, and we can all agree that his legacy more than fulfills that objective. his name lives on in our

the words of the great west virginia statesman robert c. byrding even more true today than in october, 2009, when he gave his last floor speech and about the war in afghanistan, our friend said this -- "during a time of record deficits, some actually continue to suggest that the united states should sink hundreds of billions of borrowed dollars into afghanistan, effectively turning our backs on our own substantial domestic needs, all the while deferring the costs and deferring the problems for future generations to address. our national security interests lie in the feeding -- no, i go further, in destroying al qaeda. until we take that and only that mission seriously, we risk adding the united states to the long, long list of nations whose best-laid plans have died on the cold, bar revenue, -- cold, barren, rocky slopes of that country called afghanistan. may god bless the men and women who serve this nation and the united states of america. thank you, mr. president. mr. mccain: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr