Remarks at a luncheon for Representative Charles W. "Chip" Pickering in Jackson, Mississippi

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, August 12, 2002

August 7, 2002

Thank you. Well, Chip, thank you very much. It's nice to be back here to Mississippi. I did bring Laura her coffee this morning. [Laughter] I don't want to put any pressure on Trent. [Laughter] But the good news is it was in Crawford, Texas. [Laughter]

I want to thank you for having me. I'm not going to stay for lunch; I'm going to head on home. I've changed addresses for a brief moment. I took my office from Washington to Crawford. I look forward to spending some time outside of our Nation's Capital. And I'm honored that the first place that I've come to since I've moved my office was the great State of Mississippi. It's wonderful to be back here again. Laura and I have got a lot of friends here, and we appreciate our friends.

I want to thank you all for coming to help Chip. I'm here today because I want to make it as clear as I possibly can: You need to send Chip Pickering back to the United States House of Representatives. And I want to thank you all for helping. I want to thank you for contributing not only your money but your time. I know many of you are involved with grassroots politics, and that's good. That's how you win, is to invigorate the grassroots, like this man is doing. So I want to thank you not only for what you have done, but what you're going to do--which is to man the phones and put up the signs and turn out the vote. I like to put it this way: When you find a good one, you've got to keep him, And you've got a good one in Chip Pickering.

And he's got a fine family. I want to thank Leisha for her dedication to the Pickering family. I don't know where all the ones in the red shirts are, but they were at the last place I was. Those Pickering boys kept coming, one after another. [Laughter] But I love a man who loves his family, and Chip loves his family. I also want to thank Margaret Ann Pickering for being here, Chip's mom.

And I want to say something as clearly as I can about why we need to control the United States Senate. I put a good man up, named Judge Pickering, for a higher court. And the people who control the Senate maligned this good man's character. They didn't treat him right. It's not good for America to have this kind of politics--take a good person and not treat him well, not give him the benefit of the doubt. We need to change the United States Senate, so that we end this kind of politics on the judiciary and allow good people, good, honorable judges, to serve our Nation. The Senate did wrong by Judge Pickering. I did right by naming him to the bench.

And he has no better friends in the Senate than Thad Cochran and Trent Lott, and I appreciate their leadership. I want to thank Thad and Trent for their friendship. When it comes to Mississippi, those men are pretty good about making the Mississippi case; you just need to know that. [Laughter]

One of my favorite things to do--I'm an early morning guy; I get to the White House early. And I love to take Barney out on the South Lawn. He's a Scottish terrier. The Lotts, Tricia and Trent, they love Scottish terriers. And I bring Spot there to the Oval Office. Spot was born at the White House, so she's quite used to being in the Oval Office and respects the new rug. [Laughter] And I get there early in the morning. One of my favorite things to do is to call up Trent--he's not an early morning guy--[laughter]--and share with him my Barney stories. [Laughter] But you're well represented by these two fine men. They're doing a great job for Mississippi, and they're doing a great job for America too.

And it's great to see Tricia, great to see Tricia. Laura and Tricia are fast friends, and I look forward to telling Laura today when I get back home that I got to see her buddy Tricia, Tricia Lott.

I also want to thank Congressman Roger Wicker. He, too, has done a fine job. He and Chip make a pretty darn good pair for the people of Mississippi. I want to thank Clinton LeSueur for running for the United States Congress. Where are you, Clinton? Co get them; I wish you all the best.

I appreciate so very much my friend G.V. Sonny Montgomery for being here, Sonny Montgomery. Sonny is a long-time friend of my family's. We're really proud to call him friend. He was a fabulous Congressman for the State of Mississippi. When I'm town there in Washington, I go to church right across the street. Sonny always reserves me a spot in the pew there. But I forgot to say in the earlier rally, he also puts a couple of dollars in the plate on my behalf. [Laughter] I'm running up quite a debt to Sonny. [Laughter] Keep giving, Sonny, and one of these days I'm going to pay you back. [Laughter] Oh, we're even now? Okay, good. [Laughter] But anyway, it's great to see Sonny.

It's great to see Haley Barbour here, the former RNC Chairman, a man who loves Mississippi and has never left. I want to thank Phil Bryant, who is the Mississippi State auditor. Phil, thank you for being here; appreciate you being here, sir. And Dick Hall, the Mississippi transportation commissioner, is here with us as well. Thank you, Dick.