The Honorable Daniel Inouye

Senator Daniel Inouye died this week. Inouye had been serving in Washington for over fifty years and had been a Senator since 1962. Often underrated in the Senate at the time of his death he chaired the Appropriations Committe and previously chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee.

If one wants to they can find plenty of obituaries and articles about the Senator's life and I urge you to do so.

What I want to point out and comment on, however, are a few thing I found remarkable in this man's story.

Bob Dole in commenting on his friends death talked about meeting his future fellow Senator in a rehabilitation hospital in Michigan after World War II. Both severely injured, both with arms that were basically non functioning, both injured in Italy within miles and days of each other, the two served in the Senate together for decades and never let their differing political viewpoints stand in the way of their friendship and Dole who has had his own health crisis recently was very moved at his passing.

A couple of items to know about Senator Inouye is that he might well have been one of the last Senator's to campaign for a fellow Senator of the opposite party. This used to be a fairly common occurrence but is verboten in today's climate. Inouye however refused to take part in this division campaigning for Mark Hatfield of Oregon in the nineties and Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska as recently as 2007. For the Senator honor meant standing by ones friends.

I also read how when competing for the Senate Majority leader against Maine's own George Mitchell in the eighties Inouye was favored but as Mitchell's chances of victory seemed to be rising Inouye made a decision. His advisors told him that he should check back with some of his promised votes, Inouye however would not question his fellow Senator's honor by repeating a previous question and or questioning a previous commitment. In the end that failure to apply pressure might well have cost him the position but Inouye never regretted his decision. The Senator lived by a code of conduct that he never would refute.

Our own current legislators would do well to model themselves after this great American hero.

Truly our Senate, our country has suffered a great loss.