October 30, 2006 – Wilmington, DE:

That was then.  This is now.  Chrysler reported losses of $1.5 billion in the third quarter of this year on its North American operations.  While Ford continues to lose ground, a lot of analysts and critics who were lambasting GM for its ineptitude less than a year ago are beginning to herald a turnaround in that company’s operations and fortunes.

So what gives?  Let’s set GM aside for now except to note that there are three shifts working flat out at the company’s Boxwood Road assembly plant near Wilmington, Delaware, building all of the Pontiac Solstices and Saturn Skys in the world.  Customers snap both of them up almost as soon as they roll off the assembly plant floor.  Exports of the Sky to Europe begin this fall. 

Earlier this month, Daimler Chrysler shook things up by announcing it was going to examine all of its assembly and parts plants, along with its upcoming vehicle from top to bottom.  Why?  To find efficiencies that will enable the company to save $1,000 a car under a plan called Project Refocus.  Vice President of Manufacturing Frank Ewasyshyn told me earlier this summer of DaimlerChrysler’s plans to undertake this kind of comprehensive analysis by this fall.  Now, they’re doing it.  He also told me that he believed the Newark plant would continue to play an important role in DaimlerChrysler’s long-term plans for years to come.  A similar view was shared with me in late spring by DaimlerChrysler’s North American CEO Tom LaSorda. 

So should we be worried about our Newark plant?  I believe that we should be concerned.  All states that have DaimlerChrysler plants, along with provinces in Canada and states in Mexico where DaimlerChrysler assembly plants are located, should be concerned.  Having said that, neither Delaware nor its DaimlerChrysler employees should be in a panic right now.  Rather, all of us here in the First State should turn our concern into constructive action that will better ensure that once DaimlerChrysler has completed its cost-cutting moves over the next year or so, the Newark plant will be alive and well and the home of as many as three or four models to be assembled.  It’s important to note that we have been in this situation before.  In 1980, as state treasurer, I negotiated a state loan at a time when the company was about to collapse.  I’ve been working to keep this plant open and to save these jobs for the past 26 years and I have no intention of giving up now.

Speaking of common sense, another obvious thing that the “Big Three” need to do is build vehicles that people want to buy.  In 2002, DaimlerChrysler scrapped plans, adopted a year earlier, to begin offering Durangos with a hybrid option starting in 2004.  If the company had continued with this plan, it is unlikely that they would be reporting close to 100 days of unsold Durangos in dealer inventories across America today. 

But all is not lost at DaimlerChrysler.  Half of the vehicles sold in Europe last year were powered by highly-energy-efficient, clean-burning diesel engines.  By the end of this year, DaimlerChrysler will introduce its latest diesel technology, called “Bluetec,” in one of its larger Mercedes sedans here.  Next year, DaimlerChrysler will likely begin offering the new diesel technology in light trucks and SUVs it will build in North America.  A year later, Bluetec should also be available in some DaimlerChrysler automobiles for sale in America.  That same year, 2008, should see DaimlerChrysler introducing its brand-new hybrid propulsion system in several of its models in America.  That new hybrid will be the first fruit of a partnership that DaimlerChrysler entered into more than a year ago with GM and BMW.  Who knows?  By then, gasoline might be selling again for $3 or $4 dollars per gallon, and DaimlerChrysler plans to reduce its reliance on gas-guzzling light trucks and SUVs will bear fruit.  That would a good thing for the company, its employees and shareholders, for Delaware and for America.

October 12, 2006 – Wilmington, DE: The end of the 109th Congress gives us a good opportunity to reflect at what we were able to accomplish this year and what “might have been.”

Unfortunately, as has been too often the case since I came to the Senate in 2001, “what might have been” trumps what we were actually able to get done. I share the frustration of many of my colleagues and constituents who wish that we would put progress in front of partisanship.

It’s frustrating because I believe that on any number of issues that I’ve worked on – such as energy independence, global warming, rail security, budget reform, etc. – there exists a coalition of the willing waiting to strike when the iron is hot. Unfortunately, slim majorities in the House and the Senate, the focus on the upcoming November elections, and in some cases, plain old stubbornness on behalf of lawmakers and interest groups meant that the iron never even got warmed up.

After the election, Congress will reconvene for the an unfortunately-titled “lame duck” session, and I still hold out hope that we can finish up work on at least two issues that my staff and I have worked very hard to get done this year – legislation designed to modernize the U.S. Postal Service and to create a strong, independent regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which together own or guarantee 40 percent of residential mortgages in this country.

But while Congress’ track record on many “big picture” issues this year was less than stellar, we still managed to get a lot of work done.

The Delaware Delegation – comprised of two Democratic senators (myself being one of them) and a Republican congressman – shares a willingness to work together that is, unfortunately, rarely seen inside the Washington beltway. This spirit of cooperation has resulted in some very positive gains for Delaware. Among those that stand out in my memory are how we joined forces to save the Delaware Air National Guard, fought for funding to replenish Delaware's beaches, managed to persuade the Veterans Administration to build a new outpatient clinic in Kent County, laid the groundwork for the Delaware Health Information Network, advocated to prohibit bonus payments to defense contractors whose weapons systems don’t meet specified performance standards, continued our fight to support cost-effective airlift capabilities in the 21st Century – including the upgrading of C-5 Galaxy aircraft instead of sending them to the “bone yard.”

I was also able – along with Senators Coburn, Obama and McCain - to push through legislation that gives taxpayers the ability to track approximately $1 trillion in federal grants, contracts, earmarks and loans. This legislation was signed into law by the president and will shed some much-needed light on federal spending and allow the public to decide for themselves whether taxpayer dollars are being well-managed.

In addition, in the closing hours of the 109th Congress, the Senate approved legislation that directs the National Park Service to study the feasibility of establishing a national park in Delaware. To this day, Delaware remains the only state in the nation without a national park, and I believe it's time that we put Delaware on the map and help spur additional tourism in the state. Our next move will be to obtain the funding for this study in the near future.

Sometimes you can't measure progress in Congress just by how many bills you pass. Progress can also be made simply by beginning to develop a consensus on how to address some of the knotty issues that we face.

For instance, although we didn't enact clean air legislation this year, I'm pleased that we were able to improve and then re-introduce and build additional support for legislation that I've been pushing for the past several years. Earlier this year, we managed to reintroduce it, make it stronger, and add additional Democratic and Republican cosponsors in both the House and Senate, while obtaining additional backing from environmental and health groups, yet holding onto the support of some of our nation’s largest utilities. By doing this, we enhance our chances that we could finally act on this important legislation, designed to reduce mercury pollution and take our first steps on combating global warming, sometime next year.

Another issue I have high hopes for is legislation that would promote the use of electronic personal health records, such as we’ve done in the VA system. Several bills on this issue -- including one I introduced this year with Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio -- are currently floating around Congress, proving to me that more and more senators believe we should be doing more to use the latest technology to cut down on medical errors and improve healthcare for people across this country.

In addition, no matter who's in charge next year, we need to get serious about real budget reform. Despite news reports showing that our budget deficit is shrinking, we still face ongoing budget problems and the retirement of the Baby Boom generation, which will put even more pressure on government spending. We have to do everything we can to restore fiscal discipline in Washington. Just before recess, I introduced, with a group of my bipartisan colleagues, legislation that would reinstitute a budget enforcement rule called “pay as you go,” as well legislation providing a “four-year test drive” providing the President a line-item veto. My hope is we can move on that legislation early next year during our annual debate on the budget.

In closing, I want to say that, at times, partisanship is a necessity. But it should be an exception, not the rule. One of the reasons why Congress’ approval ratings continue to tank is that the people want – and rightfully deserve – for us to get things done. They are tired of all the sniping and want us to work together to make life better for Americans.

Whoever takes control of Congress the election in November should be mindful of that and focus on getting things done and working to enact a bipartisan agenda for the American people.

September 11, 2006 - Wilmington, DE: 

I will never forget the events of September 11, 2001.  My morning started just like most others.  I was on the train en route to Washington that day and was on a conference call with my staff when they reported to me that a tragic accident apparently had occurred – a commercial airliner had flown into one of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.  Less than 20 minutes later, they called back to say that a second airplane had just flown into the other tower, and we knew at once that this was no accident.  When I arrived at Union Station a short while later, I hurried up to the Hart Building where my office is located.  As I quickly walked up Delaware Avenue, I could hear the sound of fighter aircraft in the sky above us that apparently had been launched in response to the attack.  Off in the distance, I heard an explosion which I later learned was likely the sound of the fuel farm by the Pentagon going up in flames.  Anxious staff members were evacuating the three Senate office buildings, as well as the Capitol itself.   Before heading off for a briefing for senators by the Capitol police, I sat in disbelief in my office and said a prayer for the men and women who were trapped in the towers and for those trying to save them.  Then, along with millions of Americans, I watched in horror as those towers collapsed.  

These terrible images will forever be ingrained in our national psyche.  But just as I remember those heart-wrenching images, I also remember the ones that filled me with pride, such as seeing my fellow Americans putting their arms around strangers to comfort those who were overcome with grief.  I also will long remember watching police officers and firefighters run toward those fiery infernos that most anyone else would run away from – simply because it was their duty, and they were determined to do it and to save as many lives as they could, even at the cost of their own lives.

Most of the nearly 3,000 people killed in these attacks were civilians going about their daily lives.  The buildings that were targeted were not chosen for their strategic value, as their destruction would not prevent or alter America’s military response.  The World Trade Center and the Pentagon were chosen because their destruction would maximize civilian casualties and increase the fear our attackers hoped to spread throughout America.

Little could our attackers have anticipated how America and a majority of the rest of the world would come together after 9/11.  I have never seen our country more united than in the weeks and months after the terrorists attacked.  I remember how much of the world – including many Arab nations - came together to express sympathy and anger at these cowardly attacks.  Some 50,000 Iranians marched in a candle-light vigil held in Tehran that same week in a remarkable display of remorse for the families of the victims.  Iran, whose leadership has openly referred to the United States as the Great Satan, stood in solidarity at that moment with the United States. There was nearly world-wide support for an American effort to drive the Taliban from power in Afghanistan, to put Osama Bin Laden on the run and to establish the first democratically-elected government in that nation’s history. 

Five years later, it's time to look back, to remember and to grieve for those who lost their lives that day and for those who gave their lives on that day to save others.  But it's also time to consider what we've learned, and where we're going -- both in terms of the war on terror and our efforts to better secure our homeland during this turbulent time in which we now live.  

One of my deepest regrets is that the United States has lost support in the world community in the years following 9/11.  Instead of finishing the job we had begun in Afghanistan and focusing on resolving once and for all the age-old dispute between Israelis and Palestinians, this administration -- relying on bogus intelligence -- decided to invade and occupy an Arab country in the heart of the Middle East.  This decision has ended up serving as a wedge between America and many nations, resulting in a foreign policy quagmire that has done little to advance the push for peace in the Middle East. 

Despite all of the evidence towards the contrary, the president continues to try and bolster support for the war in Iraq by continually trying to establish a link between Saddam Hussein and those who attacked us on 9/11.  Instead of working together, this Republican-controlled Congress has too often held the party line.  While we are beginning to see some Republicans break from the president on foreign policy issues, until lately, these types of disagreements have been rare.  The mantra of “Stay the Course” remains the dogma for the Administration and for many of our friends in the Republican Party in Congress.   

 I believe that we need to change course in Iraq and devise policies that are both tough and smart.  For example, we should try again to enlist a ‘coalition of the willing’ composed of other countries in that region of the world and call on them to draw on their relationships in Iraq in order to work closely with Sunnis and Shiites to begin to reduce the violence there and help make Iraq more secure, as well as to participate meaningfully in the rebuilding efforts within that country.  We also must use all of our diplomatic resources to contain North Korea and Iran, and their quest to become nuclear powers.  And of course, we can't let the roadmap to peace in the Middle East continue to become a roadmap to war.  The Bush administration, along with other nations, must do far more to settle the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians so that the former have security as well as peaceful borders and neighbors, and the latter have a state of their own.  Otherwise, we may never see permanent peace in that part of the world. 

We also need to do more to keep Americans safe at home.  While we have made a lot of progress since 9/11, we still have a long way to go. 

Delaware might be a small state, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t need to be vigilant and take reasonable steps to safeguard our infrastructure from potential terrorist attack. 

While we have made significant strides in America in to combat terrorist attacks against airliners and nuclear facilities, including several just across the Delaware River from Delaware, we need to do a better job securing our nation’s chemical facilities.  Delaware was once known as the ‘chemical capital of America.’  There are still a lot of chemicals that are produced and stored in our state and in our region.  These chemical facilities need to be protected, especially the most vulnerable and most potentially lethal among them. 

We also need to do more to protect and secure our rail and transit systems.  In 2004, an estimated 9.5 billion passenger trips occurred on those systems in the United States.  Last year’s terrorist attacks in London and Madrid have shown that transportation infrastructure is a potential target for terrorist attack.  An attack on certain parts of our rail and commuter systems could have horrific consequences, especially along our Eastern Seaboard. 

The Port of Wilmington is a full-service deepwater port and marine terminal handling more than 400 vessels per year with an annual import/export cargo tonnage of 5 million tons.  Unfortunately, less than 10 percent of all containers passing through Wilmington are checked for dangerous goods.  The same is true of most of our other major American ports.  With hundreds of thousands of shipping containers passing through our ports each year and continuing their journey across America on our nation’s rail system, this neglect could have tragic consequences.  

Five years after 9-11, as we pay homage to those who died, we almost must remember that our struggle continues as we strive to rid the world of terrorism and keep America safe.  It is a battle that we’ll likely be waging for some time.  It is also a battle that we cannot afford to lose. 

September 5, 2006 – Wilmington, DE:  On my family’s recent trip to Italy and England, I was happy to see that at least some of the citizens of those countries share one of my passions in life: recycling.

I began recycling over 30 years ago in Palo Alto, California, just a few miles from Moffett Field Naval Air Station where my squadron was stationed when we weren’t overseas during the Vietnam War.  I found a recycling center in Palo Alto and faithfully used it until my tour of duty was over and I moved to Delaware to enroll in the University of Delaware’s MBA Program.

It wasn’t too long before I started to recycle in the First State, too.  I’ve never stopped.  For years, I used the igloos of the Delaware Solid Waste Authority.  Now, my family and I pay a local recycling company, Recycling Express, a modest fee to pick up most of our recyclables every other week in front of our home.  They cart off old newspapers, magazines, junk mail, glass, metal cans, plastic containers and cardboard every other week.  We also regularly recycle plastic bags and household batteries at the igloos near our home.  We return extra clothes hangers to our local laundry and printer cartridges to their manufacturer.  In addition, we take used televisions and electronic equipment to a dropoff at the entrance of the Pigeon Point landfill. 

In short, our family recycles big time.  Although the City of Wilmington picks up trash two times a week on our street, we generally put just one can per week for the trash collectors to empty.  The rest we recycle. 

One of my few regrets as governor was that I didn’t provide stronger leadership to foster significant increases in recycling throughout our state. We got the ball rolling a little in 2000, but as we watched available landfill capacity disappear, I wish we had done more. 

While individual efforts are both needed and admirable, I feel that we can, and should, do more to promote recycling on a national level.  That is why I agreed, along with Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), to co-chair the Senate recycling caucus.  Together, we encourage greater recycling on Capitol Hill and look for opportunities to encourage recycling throughout the country through legislation that comes before us.

By better understanding recycling issues, we can develop effective public policies to help increase the recycling rate in America.  In turn, this will benefit both our environment and our economy. 

The caucus will meet once a year with leaders of the recycling industry to prioritize issues that the Caucus will address during that legislative session.  By developing relationships with industry leaders, we can better focus our efforts on ways to benefit the recycling industry. 

The end result of this effort will be a sustained growth of the recycling industry – which accounts for approximately 1.1 million jobs in America.  For every recycling worker who picks up material on collection day, there are actually 26 more workers behind the scenes that help make America’s recycling efforts possible.  The recycling industry accounts for $236 billion in gross annual sales and $37 billion in annual payrolls.  Recycling also has the added benefit of reducing the amount of energy that is needed to produce our nation’s consumer goods by allowing manufacturers to utilize material in a more finished form. 

Because of the many economic and environmental benefits that a sustainable recycling program provides, the Delaware Solid Waste Authority (DSWA) has organized the Voluntary Drop Off Center System that gives Delawareans convenient locations to drop off their recyclable materials.  Most of these recycling centers are located within a five-mile radius of most households.   

This past Friday, I visited the new DSWA Transfer and Recycling Center in Millsboro.  This operation will save local customers travel time and fuel costs and will help reduce regional truck traffic.  It is estimated that commercial regional traffic will be reduced by over one million miles each year, which means more than 63,000 gallons of fuel will be saved and less pollutants will be released into the air that we breathe.   

The many benefits of a successful recycling program are strong examples of how small changes in our behavior can have a big impact on the world around us.  By putting our newspapers and other recyclable materials in the recycling bin instead of in the trash, we can help protect our environment and our economy at the same time. 

August 18, 2006 - Wilmington, DE: 

As you may know, Congress is traditionally in recess for much of the month of August.  My family took advantage of part of that recess to take a family vacation to a place we have been talking about visiting for years – Italy. 

Coming home this week, we were routed through England where we would spend a day and a night in Manchester, near Nottingham and Liverpool.  Little did we know that our return to the states would coincide with the crackdown in airline security triggered by the terrorist plot recently uncovered by British intelligence. 

Prior to boarding our aircraft to come home, we watched as security personnel sifted through our carry-on bags, separating us forever from toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant, contact lens solution, lotion, bottled water and more. We weren’t alone, and while none of us liked it, we realized that there are crazy people in the world today who have perverted their religion to somehow convince themselves that they can gain favor in God’s eyes by taking the lives of a lot of innocent people who mean them no harm. 

We began our trek home from Rome just a few days after the pandemonium had peaked, but the security precautions were still without precedent, at least for me.  Prior to boarding our aircraft in Manchester, my first impression was being startled by so many TSA-like personnel.  They were remarkably polite.  They were also remarkably thorough.  I had to check the small duffel bag that I normally travel with as a carry-on bag, and was given a good-sized transparent bag to carry most of the contents on board our aircraft. Our passports and boarding passes were double-checked as we made our way from the check-in counter through security, through the terminal, through the gate and again just before we boarded the plane. 

A number of adult passengers - including me – were randomly pulled aside while going through security for pat downs that were not perfunctory.  The questions asked of us were not perfunctory either but appeared in some instances designed to delve a good bit deeper into the travelers state of mind and possible intent or motives for traveling.

In midst of all of the hullabaloo, our baggage never made it on our return flight from Rome to England.  Three bags made it to Manchester about eight hours later.  One of them – my wife’s – never made it to England and finally caught up with us upon our return to the states.  She was not pleased. 

The good news is that despite any inconvenience, lost luggage, cancelled flights and frayed tempers, nobody died.  At least not this time.  The Brits get high marks – certainly from me – for nipping this one in the bud. 

Like it or not, it looks like – at least for the foreseeable future – we need to stay alert, more alert than ever, and work closely with other nations including the Brits.  All of us are going to have to remain vigilant and put up with inconveniences that would have been hard to imagine just a few years ago.  And while we may not like it, it is worth the price for, hopefully, cooler heads to prevail, and we can put this genie back in the bottle.

August 7, 2006 - Washington, DC

Late in July, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, of which I’m a member, approved legislation I’ve been working on to use the Internet to learn more about how the federal government spends its money. 

I’ve been a long believer that we need to do more to cut government waste, but the federal government is so vast, it’s incredibly difficult, even for senators, to investigate whether the thousands of federal grants, earmarks and contracts approved each year are going toward a good cause.  Although all federal expenditures are accessible to the public, it takes the computer skills of Bill Gates and the navigation skills of Lewis and Clark to trace federal dollars through the system. 

That’s why I’ve joined with several of my colleagues – including Sens. Tom Corburn, of

– to develop and build support for legislation that would empower the public to become a greater watchdog of our government’s finances.  The bill would basically call for a “Google-like” search engine and database, which the public could use to research how the government is spending your money.

For example, let’s say you wanted to look into the money that’s being spent to modernize our fleet of C-5 Galaxies in

When I was running for State Treasurer in 1976, the first really memorable story written about me was by a reporter named Ralph Moyed, who passed away several ago.   He was a no-nonsense type of journalist who felt an obligation to shine his light on government officials to make sure that they remembered their first obligation was to the people.  He had an exceptional moral compass, and I can tell you from experience, his watchful eye put the fear of God into many

Unfortunately, not every politician or government employee is thinking or worrying about the Ralph Moyeds of the world when they approve a contract or push for a congressional earmark of questionable merit.  You don’t have to look much further than the waste and abuse we’ve documented in federal expenditures during the aftermath of Katrina or the lobbying scandals of Jack Abramoff to be reminded that we need to be doing a better job of policing federal money.

This bill is good first step toward making government spending more transparent and accountable to the people.  My hope is that we can enact it into law before the November elections.  I'm sure Ralph Moyed would approve.

July 7, 2006 - Kent County

On a picture-perfect summer day this past Friday, I joined a number of my fellow Delawareans in the town of Leipsic to celebrate the one-year anniversary of a large-scale effort to reverse the decline in the oyster population of the Delaware Bay.

As I addressed the crowd on the docking station of the research vessel, First State, on the Leipsic River, I asked, “Who here likes oysters?”  Roughly half of the people in the audience raised their hand.  I laughed and said, “I love oysters.  But, you know who doesn’t?  My youngest son.” 

He thinks they’re ugly.  Maybe even a little creepy.  I suppose that a number of other people feel the same way.   “Oysters are beautiful,” I told him.  “Not only do they taste good, they’re good for us.  And besides that,” I continued, “they filter and clean the waters in which they grow, and we have them right here in the Delaware Bay.” 

After several of us had welcomed everyone and made some opening comments, I joined Congressman Castle, Governor Minner, and DNREC Secretary Hughes as we took a 35-minute boat trip into the Delaware Bay to see, first-hand, a “shell-planting” on the Bay.

What is shell-planting?  It’s just like it sounds.  Clean surf clamshells are deposited on oyster beds to create a habitat that floating larvae can attach to, and then oysters begin growing.  Oysters can be left in that area until they reach maturity in three or four years, or they may be transplanted to other beds to revitalize another habitat.

On the way out to the planting site, we had some lunch and I had a real interesting talk with Leonard “Limbo” Voss, who is chairman of the Delaware Shellfish Advisory Council. Limbo has been harvesting oysters in these waters for about 30 years.  He started when he was ten years old, and like his father, uncle, and brother, has made a living from harvesting oysters, but also conchs, blue crabs, eels, and striped bass. We talked about how the oysters and the Bay have changed over time, but we both agreed that people in this area don’t really know where the oysters they are eating come from. 

When people think about oysters, many may not think they come from the Delaware Bay. However, our waters have been producing eastern oysters since the 1800s.  In the 1990s, however, our oyster industry faced serious threats, such as disease, habitat loss, and over-harvesting.  Since 1995, shell-planting has helped get the oyster population back on track, which is great news – not only for oyster-lovers like me – but for our economy and local oyster harvesters as well. 

In addition to being good to eat, oysters actually help keep the bay water clean.  Oysters and their habitats provide homes for other marine organisms, which attract crustaceans and small fish, providing a healthy ecological cycle.   I like to say, “The oyster is a gift that keeps on giving!”   And it’s true.

As I stood with Mike Castle on the bow of the First State, we watched the New Jersey-owned boat, Jeanne Christine, moving slowly through the water, drop what seemed like an endless supply of clamshells into the bay.  The first load came from the starboard side of the large black boat, and that was followed by a large, splashing load from the port side.

This was a repeat of what happened in July 2005, the anniversary we were celebrating, when 280,000 bushels, or approximately 150 acres of shells, were planted in New Jersey and Delaware to begin the restoration.

I am told this shell-planting program could increase oyster production by approximately 200,000 to 400,000 bushels each year, with a possible economic impact of up to $60 million between Delaware and New Jersey.  All told, though, it will likely take three years or more to rebuild the populations, but one of the marine biologists on board told us that the program has been an unqualified success thus far.   

At the behest of the Delaware and New Jersey congressional delegations, Congress originally provided $300,000 for this project in fiscal year 2005, followed by an additional $2 million allocation in 2006 to continue and expand the plantings on a larger scale.   Matching funds have been provided by oystermen in Delaware and New Jersey, the Cumberland County Empowerment Zone, and the Delaware River and Bay Authority.  This is truly teamwork at its finest, and, I firmly believe, it is money well spent. 

As the shells started their descent to the bottom of the bay, our boat turned and headed for the dock.  And, I left with thoughts of oysters… for dinner.

June 28, 2006 - Wilmington, DE:

Delaware might be a small state, but we have a large number of veterans living within our borders.  In fact, nearly 10 percent of Delaware’s population has served in the Armed Forces.  I myself am a veteran of the U.S. Navy, having served as a naval flight officer on both active duty and in the Naval Reserve for some 23 years.  Later, as Governor of Delaware, I was privileged to serve for eight years as commander-in-chief of the Delaware National Guard.  This experience has carved a special place in my heart for the brave men and women across America who serve or have served in our nation’s armed forces.

Over the past 15 years the quality and availability of veterans care in Delaware has undergone a much-needed transformation.  Our VA hospital in Elsmere used to be a post-WWII relic with 16-bed wards and a reputation for providing less than ideal care to Delaware’s veterans.  With the investment of substantial federal dollars, able leadership and the hard work and cooperation between local, state and federal agencies, we have succeeded in transforming this facility.  Today, Delaware’s VA hospital is a flagship in a VA system that is regarded by many as the gold standard in the provision of health care in America. 

Not all that long ago, Delaware was the only state in the nation without a veterans’ cemetery.  Today, we have two magnificent veterans’ cemeteries, one located in Millsboro and the other just south of Newark.  While I wish they never had to be used, it is comforting to know that the brave men and women who pay the ultimate cost while serving their country now can be laid to rest with dignity in a veterans’ cemetery in their home state of Delaware. 

Today, Delaware is still one of only two states without a veterans’ home.  This oversight is finally being corrected this year, when our congressional delegation announced the allocation of nearly $19.5 million for the construction of a new long-term veterans care facility in Milford.  That’s roughly two-thirds of the cost of construction of the facility which I visited last month.  It is going to be beautiful.  The remaining money needed to complete this new 150-bed nursing home has already been allocated by the Delaware State Legislature.   Compared to the cost that many of our veterans have paid while serving their country, this is not too great a price to pay to provide many of them with the care and service they deserve.

Fifteen years ago, Delaware also had the distinction of not having any community-based outpatient centers that provided health care services for veterans.  Today, we have state-of-the art facilities in Millsboro and in Seaford.  Together, they now provide primary health care and mental health care to several thousand Delawareans.

But even with a great full-service health care facility in Elsmere and two outpatient clinics in Sussex County, a piece of the puzzle has been missing.

This past week, an important step was taken when I joined with the rest of the Delaware Delegation to announce that sometime within the next six to twelve months, the Department of Veterans Affairs will open a new community-based outpatient health care clinic in Kent County.  This is great news for the more than 15,000 veterans who reside in the Dover area.  The addition of this facility in Dover will make it even easier for Delaware’s veterans to receive the help and care that many of them need and deserve. 

While Delaware’s other veterans care facilities, located in Wilmington, Millsboro and Seaford, are all stellar facilities, they were not easily reachable for many veterans who live in the central part of our state.  With the addition of this new facility, no veteran who lives in Delaware will be more than 30 miles from either an outpatient clinic or our terrific VA hospital.

As Delaware’s veteran population expands with the addition of men and women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is even more important that we make quality primary medical care both convenient and accessible.   The new Dover-area out-patient clinic, conveniently located in the middle of our state, will go a long way toward helping even more of Delaware’s veterans receive top-notch health care for decades to come.

June 15, 2006 - Wilmington, DE

This past Monday, I had the pleasure of touring the almost-completed Mid-Atlantic Biodiesel production facility, located on what used to be a 6-acre abandoned railroad yard in Clayton. When fully operational, this facility - the first of its kind in our region - will annually produce approximately 5 million gallons of biodiesel made primarily from soybeans grown right here on the Delmarva Peninsula.

This plant represents one common-sense solution to our nation’s energy crisis. Instead of buying oil from countries that might not have our best interests at heart, we need to be investing in new types of alternative fuel technology. Biodiesel literally turns Delaware’s soybean fields into oil fields. However, unlike most oil fields, there is no unsightly equipment needed to extract the oil – you simply harvest the crops as farmers have been doing for decades.

Biodiesel makes sense as an alternative fuel source for a number of reasons. Besides the obvious environmental benefits, biodiesel represents a market-driven solution to our nation’s energy crisis. It is important to remember that a lot of recently-developed technologies – like the Global Positioning System and the Internet - were originally government-funded projects. Since there was a commercial demand for these products, the commercial market absorbed these new technologies and made them economically viable for private industry to produce.

Biodiesel is also a cleaner-burning alternative to petroleum-based diesel, and it has the added benefit of being made from renewable resources such as soybeans and other natural fats and oils, all of which are produced here in Delaware and around the United States. It works in any diesel engine with few or no modifications and can be used in its pure form, commonly called B100, or blended with petroleum diesel at any level – most commonly 20 percent (B20).

Biodiesel is nontoxic, biodegradable, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics. Biodiesel offers similar fuel economy, horsepower and torque when compared to traditional petroleum-based diesel with the added benefit of providing superior lubricity, which reduces engine wear and can extend the life of our vehicles.

It also significantly reduces emissions of carbon monoxide, particulate matter, unburned hydrocarbons and sulfates. On a lifecycle basis, biodiesel reduces carbon dioxide by roughly 75 percent when compared to petroleum diesel.

The potential to reduce our reliance on foreign oil while simultaneously helping Delaware’s economy is very promising. I joined with the delegation to help secure funding for this project, including government grants and loans from private institutions. The project was first funded with a $60,000 Rural Business Enterprise Grant from USDA to fund a feasibility study for the project.

Once the feasibility study proved that this facility would work, a $5,000,000 loan was guaranteed by USDA Rural Development's Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan program. A $500,000 federal energy efficient improvement grant was also be used to complete the final construction. This facility is the first ever Delaware project to receive funding through this program.

Monday’s tour of the facility was a nice way to see how this money was being put to good use. I was accompanied by Marty Ross, president of Mid-Atlantic Biodiesel Company. Now, for those of you that don’t know Marty, he is a great guy with a good head on his shoulders. During my visit to the plant last Monday, Marty told me a story from his childhood that helped shape his business philosophy. When Marty was 10 or 11 years old, he was walking around his father’s Sussex County farmyard and he noticed many things that were in disarray. Marty said “Dad, this place is starting to look really run down.” His father replied “Son, there are two kinds of people in this world. Those who notice that something needs to be fixed and talk about it – and those who just fix it.” With that, his father just turned around and walked away.

Marty is the type of guy who sees a problem and fixes it. With him at the helm of this new facility, Delaware’s burgeoning alternative-energy industry is in good hands.

We toured the entire facility, including the power supply room, the electric control room and the actual processing building where the soybeans are turned into biodiesel.

In the electric control room, I spoke with a gentleman who was working on the computers in the control room that will eventually direct the flow of biodiesel through the conversion process. His hard hat said “Gunner” on it and it caught my eye as we were walking by. It turns out that he was a retired Chief Petty Officer named John Robinson. He had served 23 years in the U.S. Navy, and is now one of the lead operators of the facility in Clayton. In fact, the Mid-Atlantic Biodiesel Plant has four full-time employees who have served in the armed forces.

After visiting the control room, we toured the processing building. This building is separate from the rest of the facility, as it is where the actual refining process takes place. Filled with large vats and a maze of piping, this room is the heart of the distilling process. Here, soybean oil is mixed with methanol in the presence of sodium hydroxide to separate the usable biodiesel from the soybean oil.

We then went to the second floor of the facility, walking on a series of catwalks and metal grating to get outside to an observation deck that overlooked the loading facility, handily located near the railroad tracks that run through Clayton. The biodiesel facility will utilize both trucks and railroad cars to deliver the finished biodiesel to distribution centers located around the United States.

Another project I’d like to highlight is the Integrated Corn-Based Bioproducts Refinery. I recently visited DuPont’s Experimental Station just outside of Wilmington, to learn more about this project. It is a joint effort between DuPont and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to utilize the entire corn stalk – not just the corn kernels – in the production of usable fuels that are equal, if not superior, to traditional petroleum-based products. I’ve supported this project for the same reason I supported the Mid-Atlantic Biodiesel refinery – it makes sense to utilize resources already in our procession when meeting our energy needs.

Once again, Delaware is living up to the responsibility of being “The First State” by taking the lead in this emerging industry. The Mid-Atlantic Biodiesel production facility in Clayton and DuPont’s research into utilizing the entire corn stalk when producing biodiesel represent some of the first steps towards supplying an ever-growing demand for environmentally-friendly alternatives to traditional fuels.

May 25, 2006 - Washington, DC:

Since the late 1940's, on the Thursday before Memorial Day, the 1,200 soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment place small American flags at each of the more than 260,000 gravestones in Arlington National Cemetery. They then patrol 24 hours a day during the weekend to ensure that each flag remains standing. The sight of these American flags always reminds me of the sacrifice that so many Americans have made to keep America safe and secure.

Many people view Memorial Day weekend as a time for picnics and trips to the beach, as a way to spend time with their families and their loved ones. Unfortunately, for some families, this will be their first Memorial Day without a loved one. It is important that we all take a moment this weekend and think about the sacrifice that each one of those flags represents.

In my home state of Delaware, there is a small town called Seaford. Most people outside of Delaware have probably never heard of it, but it’s a great little town. One of the best parts of Seaford isn’t visible to the naked eye, you have to go there to really experience it - Seaford residents take a lot of pride in their town and in their country. Because of this proud heritage, a number of people who grew up in Seaford have gone on to serve in the Armed Forces.

Earlier this month, three of Delaware’s young men – two from the small town of Seaford - lost their lives while serving in Iraq.

Marine Corporal Cory L. Palmer, who graduated from Seaford High School in 2002, died from injuries sustained when the Humvee he was riding in was hit by an explosive device near Fallujah.

Army Pfc. Steven Snowberger, who attended William Penn High School in New Castle, was killed by a roadside bomb near Baghdad at the age of 18.

Marine Lance Corporal Rick Z. James, a 2004 graduate of Seaford Christian Academy, was killed by enemy fire while conducting combat operations in Ramadi.

Since the beginning of the Iraq war, more than 2,400 brave men and women have lost their lives while fighting to free Iraq and to secure a new democracy in the Middle East. More than 18,000 have been wounded – some of them quite severely. Our own state of Delaware has lost 12 brave native sons during this conflict.

Another young man who I know very well was recently injured while on patrol in Iraq. Sean Barney was a member of my Senate campaign team, and he joined my Senate staff as a senior legislative aide after I was elected to office. Sean was one of the hardest workers I have ever met. He arrived early and stayed late, setting an example for the other members of my staff. Blessed with a wonderful, self-deprecating sense of humor, he was both liked and admired by all of us.

I’ll never forget the day Sean came into my office, spoke of my own military service, and told me that he was thinking of joining our armed forces. It wasn’t long after our nation had been attacked on 9-11. Like many of us, Sean was outraged by the attack on our country and felt that he needed to do more.

I remember encouraging him to rethink his decision. I reminded him that he was already serving his nation in his current position and that he was needed here in the Senate. Sean was in his late 20s. He was in good shape, but it would be harder for him than for the 19 and 20-year-olds he would be serving with. None of these arguments would sway him. He was determined to become a Marine. His mind was made up.

A college graduate, Sean could have headed for officer candidate school at Quantico, but he opted instead to enlist, complete basic training at Parris Island and his specialty training after that, before joining his Marine Reserve unit in New Jersey when it returned from Iraq. Last fall, he got word that he would be called up to active duty. A month or two ago, after completing further training, he headed for Fallujah and the fate that awaited him there.

Two weeks ago today, Sean Barney was shot by an enemy sniper. The bullet struck him in the neck, just missing his Adam's apple. It severed the carotid artery, nicked the jugular vein, and just barely missed his spine. Sean ran about half a block and took cover behind a building or some debris. By a miracle, apparently a Humvee that was not too far away. It was called in by one of Sean's buddies. I think it had a Navy corpsman, or medic, on board, maybe even a doctor. They got to Sean, and Sean was still conscious. The last thing he remembered was hearing the corpsman say: “Let's get the tourniquet out and use it.” Sean remembers thinking, with a wound in the neck, where are they going to put the tourniquet? For those of us that know Sean and his sense of humor, this thought was a good sign that we was going to pull through.

Within 12 minutes of being shot, Sean was in placed in another Humvee and taken to the hospital in Fallujah. There was a doctor there, a fellow by the name of Captain Donovan, who just happened to be starting a 30-day rotation at Camp Fallujah Hospital. Thankfully, he was able to stop the bleeding and put the carotid artery back together again. The fact that Sean is alive today is nothing short of a miracle.

I know a lot of us prayed earnestly for Sean. I thank God that he has been spared and returned to be here with his wife Daisy and his parents. Sean is going to be checking out of Bethesda Naval Hospital later this week. While he has some problems with his shoulder in terms of mobility, Sean is going to get great care and, hopefully, someday will be able to regain his full capacity.

Not all of our loved ones have been so lucky. It has been a tough month in Delaware. We are a little state. When one person suffers, we all suffer.

However, I must say that I am encouraged to talk to the families and see how proud they are of their young men, their sons, their grandsons, their brothers, their cousins, their friends. I have never seen a town – big or small – come together like I witnessed this month in Seaford. The town, and the entire state of Delaware, have supported and prayed for those who have lost their lives and for their families.

To those in Seaford, and to all of the brave men and women who have family serving in our armed forces around the world, our hearts and prayers go out to you, especially on this Memorial Day weekend.

Semper Fi.

May 16, 2006 - Washington, DC:

My reputation in Washington and in Delaware is that, once committed to a cause or issue, I don’t give up. In other words, the word “retreat” is usually not found in my vocabulary.

However, once each year I make an exception. For over 15 years, I’ve convened annual retreats, initially as a Congressman, as Governor of Delaware, and now with all members of my Senate staff in Delaware and D.C. Almost all of these retreats take place in Delaware. Typically, they begin around noon on a Friday and conclude shortly after noon on the following day. Often, our retreats are held on the University of Delaware’s College of Marine Studies campus in Lewes.

We gathered there this past Friday for 24 hours of team-building. We heard inspiring – and sometimes amusing -- presentations from our constituent services staff in each of our three counties and from our small cadre of legislative correspondents in DC who help me respond to hundreds of phone calls, emails, faxes, and written inquires from Delawareans every week.

Revised rules of ethical conduct received an in-depth review as did ways to improve communication among our staffs in Georgetown, Dover and Wilmington and, especially, communications between our Delaware-based Senate staff and their counterparts in our Senate office in Washington.

Just before dinner Friday evening, we also heard from Dr. Bethany Hall-Long, a healthy-living expert and faculty member with the University of Delaware who also happens to represent the 8th District in Delaware’s House of Representatives. Bethany was kind enough to stop by our retreat and lead a discussion on some of the benefits of living healthier lifestyles. I always urge my staff to find a balance between their hard work serving the people of Delaware and their personal lives. By eating a healthy diet and incorporating regular exercise into our daily routines, I’m convinced that we can better serve our constituents and avoid some of the pitfalls associated with living unhealthy lifestyles.

On Saturday morning, I called on everyone present to recommit themselves to the notion that we are servants to the people of Delaware, and I reminded our staff of our four core values:

1) to do what we believe is right;

2) to treat others as we would like to be treated;

3) to use common sense and be committed to excellence in everything that we do; and,

4) to never give up when we know that we are right.

We then explored some of the different ways that each of us could change the way we do some portion of our respective jobs to better, more consistently, reflect those core values. The discussion was spirited, and the ideas that flowed from it were both practical and varied.

I think that most of us who attended would agree that the various discussions, the breakout groups and the team-building exercises were beneficial. However, perhaps the most valuable part of this retreat was simply to enable my Senate staff members in Delaware and D.C. to spend some quality personal time together, to get to know each other a little bit better and find out what makes us tick, as well as to more fully understand the perspectives of their colleagues who may work in another part of our state or in our nation’s capitol.

While I am almost always proud of the job that my Delaware and Washington staffs do in responding to the needs of our constituents and in better enabling me to represent Delaware in the Senate, I also know that there’s room for improvement in just about everything that we do. When I was privileged to serve as Governor of Delaware, the informal motto of our administration became, over time, “If it isn’t perfect, make it better.” That’s the motto that we embrace and seek to embody in our new roles in the Senate every day. Fresh off of our weekend retreat, that was also the spirit that we took back to work with us yesterday morning in each of Delaware’s three counties and in our nation’s Capitol.

May 2, 2006 – Wilmington, DE:

Earlier this week, I participated in a public forum focusing on our country's continued slide into fiscal irresponsibility. The event was actually the eighth in a series being hosted around the country by the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan budget watchdog group that's tasked itself with the sometimes unenviable job of informing the public about the need for sound fiscal policy.

In true Delaware fashion, Monday's forum was bipartisan, thanks to the participation of Congressman Castle and myself. In fact, our appearance together made Delaware’s discussion the first of the series to feature participants from both political parties. But as Mike said during his remarks, bipartisanship is more the rule than the exception in the First State. It's that commitment to working together that has helped keep our state’s finances in order.

It wasn’t always that way in Delaware, of course. When Governor du Pont took office in 1977 -- just two months after I was first elected as state treasurer -- Delaware shared with Puerto Rico the dubious distinction of having the worst credit rating in the country. We were closed out of credit markets. We had no cash management system. All of the state's money was in a bank that was on the brink of insolvency. We were the best in the country at over-estimating revenues and under-estimating expenditures. That's how we earned the worst credit rating of all 50 states.

As any family knows, a budget based on spending more than you’re bringing in is no budget at all. It's a recipe for fiscal disaster. Governor du Pont understood this and acted in concert with Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature to pass a constitutional amendment limiting the state’s expenditures to 98 percent of its revenues. The amendment further provided that the remaining two percent be set aside in a “rainy day fund.” A non-partisan, blue ribbon panel called the Delaware Economic Financial Advisory Council was created to develop conservative projections of both revenues and spending. That bit of fiscal common sense and restraint is still serving us well today, and that “rainy day fund” has not been tapped in the nearly twenty-seven years since its creation.

The larger lesson to be learned from Delaware’s own fiscal turnaround is that strong leadership is an absolute must if a city or state is to maintain fiscally sound policies.

Unfortunately, many people in Washington have forgotten that lesson. History has shown us that budgets don’t get balanced without strong leadership from chief executives, be they governors, mayors, county executives or Presidents. Bill Clinton is the only President in the last thirty years who, working with both Republicans and Democrats in Congress, balanced the federal budget. In fact, they did it for four years in a row. Clinton and his team of economic advisors understood that balancing the budget and paying down our publicly held debt were the right things to do—not only for the economy but for future generations, as well.

But the progress we made under President Clinton has completely eroded. Certainly, we've had a lot of spending pressures put on our budget -- September 11th, military action in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Hurricane Katrina. At each turn, however, President Bush could have tried to engage Congress on the need to rein in spending or do something to get the budget back under control, like vetoing spending bills. For reasons that aren't entirely clear to me, he has largely chosen, instead, to ignore the problem, and now we're looking at structural deficits as far as the eye can see.

My mother used to tell me that I was “on the road to ruin” when she wasn’t particularly pleased with my actions. Well, that phrase of my mothers would apply almost perfectly to the current state of the federal government’s budget which is expected to be roughly $400 billion in the red this year and America's trade deficit which reached $750 billion each last year and shows no sign of abating.

So, what’s it going to take to get our fiscal house back in order?

As Dennis Healy, a former British Chancellor of the Exchequer once said, when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

Unfortunately, that is easier said than done. That's why just about everyone in Washington -- Republicans, Democrats, Congress, and especially the White House -- needs to be on board.

In 1997, Republicans and Democrats came together, sat down with President Clinton, and helped carve out a plan to get the country back into the black. We need to do the same thing now. Democrats and Republicans and the Bush Administration need to come together, agree to common sense reforms like reinstating a pay-as-you go spending policy, while putting everything on the table as they did nine years ago —spending programs, our tax policies, entitlement programs—and together chart a course back to fiscal sanity.

That's the Delaware way. If we keep working at it, maybe, it will once again become the Washington way, too.

April 20, 2006 – Wilmington, DE:

I feel like spring officially arrived last week. Along with it came a desire to roll down the windows in my car, to fire up our barbeque grill and get home a little early to spend some time outdoors with my family.

While the forecast isn’t all that encouraging, I hope the weatherman is wrong and that this Saturday - which just happens to be Earth Day - turns out to be a beautiful day, too. Rain or shine, it’s a great time to get outside and enjoy all that Delaware has to offer – while at the same reflecting on the state of our environment and what actions we need to take to preserve this planet of ours for generations to come.

This week, during a trip I made downstate, I had a chance to talk with some folks about an environmental issue that I’ve spent a lot of time on during my tenure as a senator – clean air.

For the past several months, I’ve been working with a bipartisan group of senators, environmental groups, utility industry representatives and other interested parties to revamp and update clean air legislation that I first introduced several years ago.

Unfortunately, an all-too-familiar gridlock in our nation’s Capitol has kept us from moving forward on legislation to dramatically reduce much of the pollution that comes out of our nation’s power plants. I hope that when I introduce our “new and improved” legislation in the next several weeks, we’ll finally persuade the rest of the Senate that it’s time to get past the gridlock and enact the first significant revisions to the Clean Air Act in more than 15 years.

It’s not that we haven’t made progress in cleaning up our air. We have. But as I stood on the banks of the Indian River this past Wednesday – with the smokestacks of the Indian River power plant looming a few hundred yards behind me – I was once again mindful of the work that remains to be done.

For instance, Delaware still doesn’t comply with EPA’s smog standards, and New Castle County doesn’t meet the standard for tiny particulate matter, or the soot that’s emitted from giant smokestacks like the ones at Indian River

We pay a very real price for the dirty air we breathe. In Delaware, about 70,000 people – adults and kids – suffer from asthma. In the summer, when pollution is at its worst, it means that thousands of them will either have to skip work or stay indoors because pollution levels keep them from going outside. Instead of being able to play in their local parks, many children will end up visiting a hospital to get help with their breathing.

Just as we have a responsibility to make the air cleaner for people to breathe, we also have a global responsibility to do something about climate change. The cover of the April 3rd edition of Time magazine – a special issue dedicated to global warming -- summed it up best: “Be worried. Be very worried.”

We can’t just keep pretending that global warming doesn’t exist and humans aren’t at least partly to blame. We need to take action now if we’re to avoid having to take even more drastic – and much more expensive – action down the road.

I believe that we don’t have to break the bank to make our air cleaner. New technologies are emerging almost weekly that will enable us to make significant reductions in pollution in a variety of cost-effective ways.

One of the most promising of those technologies is something called “coal gasification.” By the way, the U.S. has more coal than Saudi Arabia has oil. In any event, we can now take coal and turn it into a gas that can be used to fire a power plant and produce electricity. This particular technology largely eliminates the amount of mercury and other pollutants emitted, and it has the potential to significantly reduce the amounts of carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas, escaping into our atmosphere. What’s more, this technology is much more energy-efficient than our current coal-fired power plants, meaning we would have to use less natural resources to get the same amount of power.

I’m pleased to hear that the folks down at Indian River are considering building such a plant to help expand capacity in Sussex County. The legislation I’m working on would encourage more of these plants to be built across the country.

We shouldn’t settle for gridlock or the status quo when we have the technology and the know-how to make major improvements in our air quality and to dodge the global warning bullet at the same time. I hope that when I get back to Washington next week, several of my colleagues and I can persuade others in the Senate that the time to act is now. This is one of those instances when time is not on our side. We need to get started.

April 11, 2006 – New Orleans, LA:

(Part 2 of 2) view photos of trip

For the next two hours on Monday afternoon, we drove through miles of neighborhoods with homes, large and small, where no one lived anymore. You could still see the water lines on the outside of homes which sat for days in flood waters that engulfed entire first floors, leaving thousand of homes uninhabitable today. We surveyed mile after mile of homes missing doors, windows and roofs. Spray painted on the front of many houses were the coded messages left by the teams of first responders who personally inspected virtually every home for survivors and victims when the floods waters began to recede. Everywhere we looked, you would see abandoned cars and debris piled up waiting to be taken somewhere. Anywhere.

But we also saw glimmers of hope amid the devastation. As we drove away from one of the levees that had been breached in the storm, we caught a glimpse of activity around a nearby house in an upper-middle class neighborhood of abandoned homes. Getting out of our vehicle alongside the home, we walked past the backhoe that was tearing out large pieces of a badly-damaged driveway. Standing in the front yard, we met the home’s new owner. Along with his visiting father and a small crew of men, they had just finished gutting the entire first floor of what once had been a lovely two-story home. In the back yard sat the remains of another home from a block away that the storm and flood waters had deposited there.

The new owner, who used to visit Delaware with his family, was a man on a mission. He hoped to move into the home in roughly two weeks. Undaunted by the challenge awaiting him, he told us of how most of the homes on his side of that block would soon undergo reconstruction to allow families old and new to move in, hopefully by year’s end. He still wasn’t sure, though, what to do with the second home that was sitting in his backyard.

As we wished him well and drove away, I was reminded of the spirit of an earlier generation of urban homesteaders in Wilmington’s Trinity Vicinity. In fact, 20 years ago, I married one of them. That spirit turned around Trinity Vicinity for keeps. As we headed for a damaged nearby National Guard base, I was encouraged that a similar spirit a generation later might work small wonders in some parts of the Crescent City, too.

But for many other neighborhoods, there is little hope or none at all. If anything, recovery, should it come at all, is years away. In some of the lower-income areas – like the Lower 9th Ward, an historic African American community with above-average homeownership rates – residents will have great difficulty paying to rebuild their homes. In many other low-lying neighbors, no one will ever live there again unless they live in new homes built on foundations rising in some places as much of a dozen feet above the ground.

Katrina is not the last hurricane that will visit our Gulf Coast. Other subsequent storms may bring even stronger winds and serve to dissipate the investments in strengthening a suspect levee system. Unless the people of New Orleans and other communities along the Gulf cost are smart about it, along with our government, more devastation will inevitably follow.

For the better part of two centuries, New Orleans and its surrounding parishes, or counties, were protected from hurricanes, not just by levees, but by the miles of wetlands that stretched 50 miles south from the city to the Gulf of Mexico. The wetlands’ grasses, vegetation and trees act as a buffer by absorbing the shock of storms like Katrina, draining some of their force before the hurricane reached populated areas like the city and its surrounding communities.

For more than an hour that Monday afternoon, we flew all over much of what had been a vibrant wetlands to the south of New Orleans. Over time, much of it has eroded away. Marsh grasses, whose root systems held the land together during the various onslaughts by Mother Nature, have succumbed over time to salt water infiltration, gradually killing the roots, the grasses and other vegetation. Much of the land is being swept into the Gulf. Every 35 minutes, an area roughly the size of a football field is lost to the sea. If nothing is done to restore these wetlands, the Gulf Coast will continue its relentless march on the Crescent City, and the outcome of this “Battle of New Orleans” is not one we will ever celebrate.

We had about an hour of down time after our flight and, after checking into our hotel, I went for a run on the same riverwalk that I had run on a number of times over the years. The view along the Mississippi as the sun was setting was as spectacular as ever. After my run and a quick shower, we drove into the University District of Uptown New Orleans, not knowing quite what we’d see when we got there. To my surprise, it looked just as it had all those years ago when I first saw it. We passed block after block of stately homes with their immaculate gardens and lawns before stopping at a lovely home just off St. Charles Street to have dinner as guests of a citizens group called “The Women of the Storm.” Along with Senator Landrieu, for the next several hours, we heard from them and from the leaders of business, academia, and the environment who were assembled around Nancy and King Milling’s big dining room table.

They shared with us the plan that was taking shape to reverse the loss of wetlands that we had witnessed just hours ago. How? By diverting some of the enormous amounts of sedimentation that the Mississippi carries every day and dumps into the Gulf of Mexico. “Every 2.7 miles of coastal wetlands reduces storm surges by about 1 foot,” one of them said. “We have no choice but to get started.” I did the math in my head, reflected on the value of our own under-appreciated wetlands in the First State, and concluded that they were on to something. As long as the same folks at the Army Corps of Engineers who’ve been in charge of contracting for debris removal aren’t put in charge of wetlands restoration, I believe that the project should go forward, paid for in large part by revenues from off-shore drilling for oil and gas in the Gulf.

A few minutes after 7am the next morning, the airliner that I was on began its takeoff roll at New Orleans International Airport. The sun was just coming up on a new day in the Crescent City. As we began to climb up to altitude, I looked out my window and saw some of the abandoned neighborhoods that we had driven through the previous afternoon. I saw the work being done to reinforce the levees that had failed. I saw the Superdome which will reopen later this year after $100 million in repairs. I caught a glimpse of the Garden District and the Mississippi’s riverwalk. Off to the south stretched the wetlands whose value was taken for granted for so long.

I wouldn’t take for granted that New Orleans will fully recover from Katrina; however, this week and next, its citizens both there and in communities scattered across America, will vote to elect a mayor to lead their city into the future. If they choose wisely, and the rest of us continue to lend a hand, their city just might pull it off. On September 25, 2006, the New Orleans Saints will return to the Superdome to play their first home game in over a year there. With the Saints back in the game, the right leadership at the helm, a lot of hard work and a break from Mother Nature, the rest of the city just might be back in the game before long, too.

April 11, 2006 – New Orleans, LA:

(Part 1 of 2) view photos of trip

The four U.S. Senators and one U.S. Representative who participated in the hearing sat there and shook our heads in disbelief and disgust over what we heard.  At the hearing’s conclusion, we resolved to hold accountable those within the Administration whose woeful leadership, poor judgment, lack of common sense and overall poor planning had allowed these horror stories to occur.  We also resolved to do our best to ensure that, as the onset of the next hurricane season bears down on us in less than two months, agencies like FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers have adopted a series of reforms to eliminate the worst of the egregious examples of waste and abuse that we put a spotlight on that day.  “It’s too bad we can’t legislate common sense,” I said near the hearing’s conclusion.  “Or outlaw stupidity,” I thought.

When the field hearing concluded in the early afternoon, several members of my staff and I left the courthouse to grab a bite of lunch with Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA).  We were joined by her father “Moon” Landrieu (former mayor of New Orleans and HUD Secretary under President Jimmy Carter) and by Pascal Calogero, the chief justice of Louisiana’s Supreme Court (and an old friend of Norm Veasey, former chief justice of Delaware’s Supreme Court).  Over bowls of gumbo, they picked up where the hearing left off, sharing with us the rich perspectives on Katrina and its aftermath of three people who had grown up and lived some 150 years in the City.  When lunch was over, we said goodbye to Moon and the chief justice and went outside to climb into a Louisiana National Guard Suburban that was waiting to take us on a tour of New Orleans that I will long remember. 

April 4, 2006 – Dover, DE: This past Monday morning, I was at home preparing for a busy day ahead in Kent County. Little did I know that my day, and the lives of 17 people on board a C-5B military transport plane, was about to be turned upside down. At 7:15am the phone rang in our kitchen. My Kent County director, Lori James, was calling me with news that a C-5 had crashed less than a mile south of the Dover Air Force Base. 

In an instant, my mind raced back some 30 years ago to the morning when a 13-man Navy P-3 aircraft assigned to my naval air station south of San Francisco crashed and burned just short of the runway. All crewmembers aboard lost their lives. Fearing the worst, I asked Lori to stay on top of the situation in Dover and to keep me in the loop. She assured me that we were being kept up to date by personnel at Dover Air Force Base and that we would know additional details as soon as they became available. Hungry for information, I turned on the radio. Sure enough, the crash at Dover Air Force Base was all over the news.

As the former commander-in-chief of the Delaware National Guard and a retired naval flight officer, I feel a strong connection to the people who serve in our armed forces. After hearing the news accounts of the crash, I jumped into my Chrysler minivan and headed for Dover, surfing the radio channels all the way to our state’s capitol. 

For those who have never had the privilege of riding in a C-5 transport aircraft, let me share a little bit of information with you. The C-5 is the largest military plane ever built. Typically used to haul cargo, it is six stories tall and as long as a football field. In the most simple of terms – it is an enormous aircraft. In fact, later that day, a reporter would ask me how the C-5 compared to the four-engine turbo-prop P-3s that I flew aboard as a naval flight officer during the Vietnam War and the Cold War. I pointed to the tail of the C-5 lying in the field about 200 yards from the rest of the plane and asked, “See the tail? You could just about fit one of our airplanes in the tail of a C-5.”

I arrived at DAFB at mid-morning. There I joined Congressman Mike Castle to hear an overview at the wing commander’s headquarters. We received a preliminary briefing while we waited for a surrey to take us to the area of the crash. Deputy wing commander Col. Chad Manske joined us and accompanied us to the crash site for a close-up look and a fuller briefing. There, we also saw the efforts underway to defuel the aircraft and remove the potentially hazardous flares that the aircraft was carrying in its nose section.

A C-5 coming in for a landing at Dover is a remarkable sight. A C-5 lying broken into three pieces in a field is an unbelievable sight. Partially covered by foam, the plane had come to rest perpendicular, less than a thousand yards from the end of the runway. 

En route to the Middle East, the 1980’s vintage C-5B Galaxy was stocked to capacity with cargo and fuel, weighing in at nearly 700,000 pounds, not including the aircraft itself. When we arrived, some of the cargo was strewn about. Seeing the cargo among the wreckage reminded us of the job the C-5 was built to do.

The C-5 has been a workhorse since it began, joining the U.S. fleet in 1968. It is capable of carrying tanks, tractor-trailers, helicopters or more than 300 troops, if necessary. In addition to military duty, it has contributed to many humanitarian missions, most recently to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.

To some skeptics, Monday’s crash may call into question the age and reliability of the C-5 fleet. While difficult to maintain, historically, the plane has been one of the safest in the Air Force. A modernization process is underway on a handful of the giant birds which, if successful, could prolong the plane's usefulness and help to provide the Defense Department with cost-effective airlift well into the 21st century. The Air Force’s experts believe that the wings and fuselages of both the C-5As and C-5Bs have useful lives of another 30-40 years. For the cost of purchasing one single C-17 cargo aircraft, three C-5s can be outfitted with reliable new engines, modern hydraulics systems and landing gear components, plus a new avionics package and radios that will bring C-5s into the 21st Century. On top of that, the C-5’s can carry twice as much cargo and fly roughly twice as far as the C-17’s.

By the end of this decade, Dover is scheduled to receive a dozen newer, slightly smaller C-17’s. This highly reliable new aircraft will work in tandem with the Air Force’s older C-5’s and the Air Guard’s vintage C-130’s to increase airlift capacity and help move needed supplies and personnel all over the world. In 2005 alone, Dover moved 124,000 tons of cargo and more than 45,000 people. It was not all done by C-5s, but they have set the standard in hauling and safety capacity. I don’t think that will change.

As I said while looking at the crash Monday morning, it's a miracle that everyone survived. The aircraft’s crew got the plane close enough to the base on their final approach that the fire crews from the base and from the surrounding community were able to reach the wreckage quickly and make sure that it didn’t go up in flames. They did a great job. While I hate to see us lose a C-5, the toll could have been far worse. I remember a day more than 30 years ago when it was.

March 3, 2006 – Washington, DC: Like many Americans, I have some concerns over the Bush administration’s plan to allow Dubai Ports World, a company owned by the United Arab Emirates, to oversee the terminal operations of six ports along our nation’s coastline, including the one located in Philadelphia.

My initial reaction was one of skepticism. Granted, the United Arab Emirates is an ally of the United States, and its leaders have taken steps to dissociate themselves from radical Islamic factions and aid our country in the war on terror. However, we can’t forget that the UAE was also one of three countries to recognize the Taliban in Afghanistan. And as Tom Kean, co-chairman of the September 11th Commission pointed out, Al Qaeda used UAE banks to wire funds to the 9-11 hijackers, two of whom were citizens of the United Arab Emirates.

My sincere hope is that the administration is correct and there is nothing to worry about. In a post 9-11 world, however, you simply can’t be too careful. That is why I have joined my colleagues in the U.S. Senate in calling for a more thorough review of this deal. Enough concerns have been raised to justify a hard second look before we make a final decision that could negatively impact the safety and livelihoods of thousands of Americans.

I also met with officials from the Port of Wilmington this past Monday to discuss this proposed deal and port security in general. After listening to their concerns, I remain committed to doing everything I can to make sure that America’s ports are as safe as possible. Since September 11th, we have made great strides in increasing airline security but continue to lag behind in rail and port security. With hundreds of thousands of shipping containers passing through our ports each year and continuing their journey across America on our nation’s rail system, this neglect could have tragic consequences.

The fact is, while there has been some progress made since 9-11 – including at the Port of Wilmington – we haven’t come close to doing all that we should to ensure the safety and security of one of our nation’s more valuable economic resources. There are reports that show a majority of the funds Congress has approved for port security the past several years remain unspent. We also need to spend our money more wisely by making sure that high-risk ports along our coastlines are protected before allocating money for lower-risk inland ports.

We’ve also not done enough to improve cargo inspections. Staffing shortages and the inability to determine which containers to inspect continue to hinder our ability to detect high-risk cargo before it arrives at U.S. ports. We also need to quicken the implementation of security programs designed to screen port workers for ties to terrorists. A test program put in place four years ago at the Port of Wilmington has proven successful, but the Department of Homeland Security recently indicated that it plans to cancel the program, even though a national screening system is more than a year away.

We’ve taken extraordinary steps to improve airline security since 9-11, but port security continues to play second fiddle. The potential ramifications are too dire for that to continue. It’s time we did more to keep our ports safe and secure.

February 21, 2006 – Dover, DE:

When I was a senior in high school, I applied too late to be considered for a nomination to the Air Force Academy. To my knowledge, no one in my family had ever graduated from college. I came from a family of modest means, so we knew that in addition to working several part-time jobs, I would need financial help to go to school, like a lot of other students. A little later that same year, I was sitting in home room one day. Among the announcements that came over the P.A. that morning was this one, “If you are a senior and would like to learn more about winning a Navy scholarship to attend college, please visit your guidance counselor this week.”

Later that same day, I looked up my guidance counselor. She told me about something called Navy R.O.T.C. “I’ve never heard of it,” I said and asked what it meant. She explained to me that the Navy Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program provides scholarship opportunities for graduating high school seniors and pays for college tuition, books, fees, and a modest monthly stipend in return for a commitment to serve on active duty for a number of years upon graduation from college. I told her on the spot that I was interested.

Over the next several months, I took aptitude tests, underwent physical exams and was interviewed several times. And wonder of wonders, I won the Navy scholarship and went off that fall to the Ohio State University where I majored in economics. After graduating four years later, I took an oath of office as a brand new ensign to defend my country and its Constitution. A week later, I packed up and headed to Pensacola, Florida to begin preflight training. Less than a year after that, I was on my way with my squadron heading to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Thus began a career as a naval flight officer that would span some 23 years of active and reserve duty, years that I cherish to this day.

As a former congressman and, now, as a U.S. Senator, I’ve had the privilege of nominating young men and women for some time to attend the Air Force Academy, the Naval Academy, West Point and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. For the past five years, I’ve hosted something that my staff and I affectionately call “Academy Night.” It’s an annual forum to which we invite high school students from all over Delaware to attend in order to learn about educational opportunities that can lead to a commission in one of the branches of our armed forces. Our latest Academy Night was held this past Monday evening in Dover at the Delaware Technical & Community College’s Terry Campus.

This event allows young men and women to learn how to go about earning a nomination to one of our service academies. Joining us for the evening were representative from all five service academies, including the Coast Guard Academy, as well as representatives from all three R.O.T.C. programs and from the Delaware National Guard, the Citadel and, even, the Civil Air Patrol.

Potential applicants are invited to apply to my office for a service academy nomination by October 15 of their senior year. These applications are reviewed by my Service Academy Selection Committee. It consists of seven members; including retired military personnel, high school guidance counselors, and representatives from our business and religious communities. The Committee then recommends a number of potential nominees to me. I make my final selection out of this smaller pool of applicants by mid-December and submit the names of nominees to their prospective service academies which make their final selections by May 1. Just before the nominees of our state’s congressional delegation head off to their respective academies, Senator Biden, Congressman Castle and I jointly host a reception in their honor in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, inviting our nominees, members of their families and other guests.

Among the young people who joined us on Monday night in Dover was a remarkable young woman who is a senior from Sussex Tech High School in southern Delaware, Alexandra Stamatiou. In the past several weeks, Alex has received appointments to the U.S. Air Force Academy, the U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Naval Academy. A “hat trick,” if you will! That’s quite an accomplishment, especially when you consider the extremely high standards that these institutions require for admissions and the quality of the other Delaware applicants! An alumna of my selection process, Alex was able to share her first-hand knowledge of the selection process with Academy Information Night participants by highlighting her experience in applying for a nomination. In her comments, Alex described the application process as well as the medical requirements and physical tests that a candidate must complete to be considered for an appointment. In addition to academics and athletics, my Service Academy Selection Committee also looks for extracurricular activities, leadership experiences and community service as part of the whole person concept. By the way, Alex has decided to go to West Point.

The training and education that Delaware students receive at West Point, the Air Force Academy, the Naval Academy, the Merchant Marine Academy, and the Coast Guard Academy is second to none. These leadership institutions serve as the forges from which outstanding candidates emerge as the future leaders not just of our military but of our country, too.

Any Delaware high school student interested in learning more about “Academy Night” next year is welcome to contact Lori James in my Dover office at 302-674-0168. In addition to serving as my Kent County coordinator, Lori serves as my direct liaison to the military and to our service academies. She has visited them all over the past five years and is an excellent source of information for any students or parents who have questions about the selection process that we follow in my office.

Both of my teenage sons are Boy Scouts and have been active in their troop for a number of years. Coincidentally, last weekend, I took a number of the Scouts from Troop 67 with me to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York for a two-day visit. Last year, we visited the Naval Academy. Next year, we’ll likely visit West Point. I don’t know whether any of those boys will end up attending one of our service academies. They may, or they may not. I do know, however, that they’re far better informed now about the opportunities that are available to them if they do apply and are accepted. And, based on the feedback we received Monday evening, the same is true for many of the hundred or so young men and women who joined us at Academy Night.

Click here for more information on Academy Nominations

February 13, 2006 - Wilmington, DE:

Two weeks ago, President Bush led off his State of the Union speech by a call for a return to civility.  It’s the kind of thing that people on my side of the aisle listen to with a grain of salt.  But the next day, though, when I spoke in the Senate and reflected on the president’s message, I led off by saying that if he sincerely meant what he had said the previous evening about civility, I’d be willing to reciprocate and expected that many of my Democrat colleagues would, as well. 

A day or two later, an invitation came to my office in the Hart Building from the White House.  It probably was just a coincidence, by my wife Martha and I were being invited to dinner by President and Mrs. Bush, along with three other congressional couples, one Democrat and two Republicans.  After checking our calendars, we accepted.  Martha came down on the train from Delaware last Tuesday evening, and we caught a ride over to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 

It was not the first time we’d been invited to the White House for dinner.  Every summer, for as long as most of us can remember, all of the senators and representatives – along with members of their immediate families -- are invited to a big outdoor barbeque on the White House lawn while the sun sinks in the western sky.  While it’s not fancy, it’s usually fun to eat barbequed chicken with 500 or more of your “closest friends,” listen to some live music and maybe chat with the First Lady and her husband for a few seconds if you’re willing to stand in line for half-an-hour for the privilege.  Many are. 

For the eight years I served as Governor of Delaware, Martha and I also were invited – along with all of the other governors and their spouses, the vice-president and cabinet members – by President and Mrs. Clinton to a black tie dinner that coincided with the National Governors’ Association’s annual meeting in Washington, DC.  That one was a bit more formal, but still a lot of fun.  It was also far more intimate.  We sat at fifteen or so circular tables of eight people in the State Dining Room.  After a reception and a couple of opening toasts, politics was set aside, and everyone just kicked back and enjoyed the evening which concluded with music and dancing for the young at heart.  The Clintons usually would invite two couples to overnight, and we were fortunate to be their guests on a couple of occasions when I served as chairman of the Governors’ Association.  After the other governors and spouses had left, the six of us would stay up and talk well into the night.  I remember thinking, don’t these people ever sleep?

Unlike President Bill Clinton, President George Bush appreciates a good night’s sleep.  When we arrived at the White House for last Tuesday’s dinner at 6:45pm sharp, we were greeted by the White House staff, many of whom we remembered from the previous administration.  They explained that the Bushes would join us at 7pm and that there would be two special guests for dinner, too.  Sure enough, at 7pm, the President and Laura walked into the room, accompanied by Jordan’s King Abdullah and one of his younger brothers, the Crown Prince.  The two of them happened to be in town.  The Bushes heard about it, invited them over and simply added a couple of more chairs at the table.  It was great to see the King again after visiting him just two months ago in Amaan.  He’s still quite young, down-to-earth, very bright and possesses a refreshing sense of humor. 

Before dinner, President and Mrs. Bush gave us the cook’s tour of the place, as President and Mrs. Clinton had done a decade or so before.  In the Lincoln bedroom, we saw one of five copies of the Gettysburg address, hand-written by our sixteenth president.  Across the hall, we stood in the Queen’s bedroom where Martha and I had stayed on two occasions.  It looked just as we had left it.  We looked for the signs saying that Tom and Martha had slept there, but they were nowhere in sight.  Down the hall, we went out onto the Truman balcony and stood where “Give ‘em hell, Harry” used to stand, taking in the Washington monument and other sites in the distance on a beautiful starry night.  The Bushes, like the Clintons before them, clearly treasured the opportunity to live there and seemed to relish the opportunity to talk about the history of each room we visited, the significance of the paintings on the walls, and the lives of some of those depicted in those paintings. 

Then it was time for dinner.  As we walked into the dining room in the family’s living quarters, Laura explained that it was the handiwork of Jackie Kennedy.  The twelve of us sat down around a beautiful table.  The President said that they began each meal there with a blessing and asked us to take the hand of the person on either side of us.  In his prayer which lasted roughly a minute, he acknowledged that we were people of different faith who, nonetheless worshiped the same God.  Holding Martha’s hand, he expressed thanks for the many blessings we enjoyed as Americans and prayed for peace and for our troops in harm’s way.   When he concluded, everyone said, “Amen,” and then we dove in.  Well, not really. 

The White House waiters served us a delicious deal, and we began to talk about a wide range of topics: the majesty of Coretta Scott King’s funeral earlier that day in Atlanta, the plane ride back to Washington on Air Force One with the Clintons, King Abdullah’s take on the election of Hamas by Palestinians, Iran’s intentions with respect to nuclear energy, ongoing efforts in Iraq to put together a coalition government, and – even -- working out in the expanded White House fitness center.  The President spoke more than anyone else at the table, but he did not attempt to dominate the conversation.  The tone ranged from serious to light and included a little baseball, too.  He remains a big Texas Rangers fan, and I am – for no good reason – a lifelong Detroit Tigers fan.  I was surprised to hear him tick off the names of some of the up-and-coming Tiger pitchers as spring training approaches.  He was equally surprised that I knew the names of several of the Rangers’ starting pitchers.  (Thank you Google.) 

Just before 9pm, the President folded his napkin on the table before him, signaling that our evening was coming to an close.  As we walked through the White House, I spoke briefly with him about his Clear Skies legislation.  “It’s not going anywhere this year, is it?” he asked.  I told him that it was not, but went on to describe a bipartisan alternative, which includes mandatory caps on carbon dioxide emissions by utility plants, that I was about to reintroduce with several of my colleagues, including New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg.  The President expressed surprised to hear me say that some utility CEO’s had voiced support for our approach and said he would raise it with Judd the next day while in New Hampshire.  Early the next morning, I gave Judd a call on his cell phone and a heads-up just in case the subject came up. 

All of us said goodnight to our hosts at 9pm sharp and thanked them for a delightful evening.  We walked to another room to retrieve our coats, basking in the bipartisan glow of the moment.  As we put on our coats, I mentioned to my Republican Senate colleague and his wife that we were going to catch a cab and head for the train station to go home to Delaware, half hoping that they might offer us a ride in their car if they were heading back to Capitol Hill.  “We’re going the other way,” he said abruptly, and Martha and I walked out into an unseasonably warm evening in our nation’s Capitol.  “Ah,” I explained.  “The upside of global warming!”  We hailed the first cab that came by.  It stopped, picked us up, and we headed for Union Station and home. 

The next evening, coincidentally, I bumped into Jim Connaughton, head of the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality, which some pundits describe as an oxymoron.  He and I went head-to-head a number of times last year as the White House was trying unsuccessfully to push Clear Skies through the Senate.  The subject of clean air legislation quickly came up, and he said with a smile, “I understand that you’ve been busy.”  I acknowledged that I had been, and we agreed to fight the good fight another day. 

February 3, 2006 – Wilmington, DE:

I’ve been privileged to attend State of the Union addresses for some time now, going back to 1983 when Ronald Reagan was our president, and I was a brand new freshman congressman from the First State. All were interesting. Some were truly memorable.

This past Tuesday night, like most of you, I watched the address, not from a front row seat in the House chamber, but from a small television set that we have in the kitchen of our home in Wilmington, Delaware. Joining me from time to time in the audience there were my wife Martha and our two teenage sons. Our boys took study breaks to come downstairs, raid the refrigerator, listen to parts of the speech and then head back upstairs to hit the books.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear much in the speech that I liked. Later, I would learn that one analyst – I believe with ABC - estimated that Bill Clinton could easily have given some 48 of the 76 paragraphs that President Bush read from the teleprompters that are largely invisible to a television audience. Conservative pundits like Robert Novak, who has a summer place near Bethany Beach, Delaware, disliked the speech for several of reasons that I found favor in it. Well, you can’t please everybody, although I suppose it is in the DNA of most politicians, including the President and me, to try.

As I listened to parts of the speech Tuesday night, though, it struck me that some of these ideas sounded very familiar. In my 2004 address to the Democratic National Convention in Boston, I called for an end of our “addiction to foreign oil” and for replacing that addiction with a greater reliance on conservation, renewable forms of energy, clean coal technology, fuel cells, and a new generation of nuclear power plants.

Delaware is a hot bed for much of this already. GE is growing the solar energy business that it acquired from what was once a promising Newark-based start-up called AstroPower. Large, established Delaware companies like DuPont and W.L. Gore, along with smaller ones like IonPower are major players in the fuel cell arena. In fact, the University of Delaware is becoming something of a clean energy R&D center, while Delaware State University is carving out a niche for itself in storage of hydrogen in anticipation of a hydrogen/fuel cell economy.

Another part of the President’s speech that gave me that déjà vu feeling all over again was when he called for the creation of a bipartisan Blue Ribbon commission to help us prepare for the impact that the impending retirement of the Baby Boomers in coming years will have on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Ironically, almost exactly a year ago I began calling for creating a similar commission to my colleagues and a C-SPAN audience as well as to a much smaller audience that included the President’s Chief of Staff Andy Card and his closest advisor, Karl Rove. The two of them pooh-poohed the idea at the time as the President was beginning to crisscross the country on the first of several Social Security barnstorming tours.

I had to smile when the president, one year later, concluded before the nation that maybe he should take a page out of Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill’s playbook and reprise the successful approach they followed in 1982-3, when Alan Greenspan chaired an earlier commission that enabled Social Security to avoid bankruptcy in 1983.

Finally, I like what the President had to say with respect of the need to better train math and science teachers as well as math and science students. We need to do both if the U.S. is to continue fostering the new technologies that will enable us to compete successfully in the 21st century with emerging giants such as China and India. That recommendation, along with several other ones made by the President, was borrowed from a report issued last year by the National Academy of Sciences.

It could have been just as easily borrowed from what Delaware has been doing for a decade in a number of our schools like the Charter School of Wilmington and in places like the Delaware Technology Park, a high-tech business incubator near the University of Delaware. Once again, the First State was leading the way.

The ideas I've mentioned here are not Republican or Democratic ideas. They're just good ideas. My hope is that the President will reach out to both parties in Congress to follow up on them so that, together, we can pass common-sense legislation to make our country more energy independent, figure out a path forward on entitlement reform and help our students excel at math and science so that America’s workforce can continue to lead the way in innovation into the 21st century.

January 26, 2006 – Washington, DC:

The following passage was selected from Sen. Tom Carper’s floor speech on the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to serve as Justice of the Supreme Court.  The speech was delivered on the floor of the U.S. Senate on January 26, 2005.  You can view the full text of the speech by clicking here.(.pdf)

The actions of the nine sitting justices of the Supreme Court can have a tremendous and lasting effect on the lives of every American, probably more so than any senator or governor and, perhaps, more than many Presidents. 

In the end, the Supreme Court exists as the last bastion of protection for the rights and freedoms of all Americans.  That’s why I take so seriously my obligation as a senator to provide advice and consent to our Presidents, as required by our Constitution, to determine whether their nominees truly merit a lifetime appointment to serve on our nation’s highest court.  

When I voted for John Roberts' nomination as Chief Justice last fall, I said it was a close call.   After carefully reviewing his testimony, discussing that testimony with Democrat and Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, meeting with him and other interested parties, and talking to colleagues who knew and worked with him, I concluded that John Roberts  was a worthy successor to Chief Justice Rehnquist and was not likely to shift the balance of the Court in a significant way.  

After we confirmed Justice Roberts and turned to face yet another impending Supreme Court vacancy, I urged President Bush to send us a nominee similar to the person he or she would replace – Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.  I noted that his next choice could divide this Congress and our country even further, or it could serve to bring us closer together.    

For more than 20 years, Justice O’Connor has been a voice of moderation during often difficult and tumultuous times.  As we all know, her decisions oftentimes determined the direction of the court.   In my view, she was the right Justice at the right time as her opinions more often than not reflected the prevailing attitude of the American people.

Unfortunately – and with some regret – I am unconvinced that Judge Samuel Alito is the right person to replace Justice O’Connor on the Supreme Court.  And unlike a few months ago, when I rose to support the nomination of John Roberts, I will not be supporting Judge Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court. 

Having said that, though, I don’t believe we should vote for Supreme Court justices based solely on their qualifications and likeability.  We must also consider their judgment, their legal opinions, their judicial philosophies, and what they said – or didn’t say – during their confirmation hearings in order to determine whether we’re truly comfortable with the direction a particular nominee will take our nation’s highest court.  After all, these are lifetime appointments that will have consequences for decades into our future.  

In the end, I found myself asking one simple question, “Is Samuel Alito the right person for this vacancy, not just for now, but for decades to come?”  For me, the answer to that question is, regrettably, no.

I’m concerned that, if confirmed, Judge Alito, during the decades he’s likely to serve, will take the Court in a new direction that serves to undermine our systems of checks and balances, threatening the rights and freedoms that many of us hold dear. 

Based on his history and his opinions, I fear that Judge Alito may well change the court’s approach and rule in favor of expanded presidential power – not just at the expense of Congress and the courts, but ultimately at the expense of the American people.   We cannot, nor should not, play witness to an unchecked presidency, regardless of political party.  We need the courts – and Congress, too – to ensure that this administration and future administrations abide by the laws of this land and the principles we hold dear.

This is not an easy vote for me.  As a former governor, I believe strongly that this administration or any other has the right to nominate judges of the same mind and philosophy.  And I believe senators shouldn’t automatically reject judges outright because of political affiliation or beliefs. 

However, politicians of both stripes must take a stand and reject nominees that we believe will take the court too far to the extreme right or the extreme left.  

I hope that if Judge Alito is confirmed, and I believe he will be, that he proves my concerns wrong and unfounded.  I hope that he remembers how our Constitution - and our entire democracy - is both an everlasting and ever-changing experiment.   Our Constitution is not something to be strictly interpreted, nor is it something to be recklessly abandoned and I hope that if Judge Alito is eventually confirmed to serve on the Supreme Court, he will balance the scales of justice rather than tip them too far in either direction.

January 13, 2006 - Wilmington, DE:

As we have every year since 1986, the U.S. Senate and the rest of the federal government will close down on the third Monday of January to celebrate the birth and life of a man who truly changed the lives of millions. Martin Luther King Jr. led the fight for racial equality and his ability to find common ground between people with opposing views has always inspired me.

This ability to transcend the ugliness of racial discrimination and promote the equal treatment of all American citizens was in line with his beliefs and with his faith. He knew in his heart that all of God’s children deserved to be treated with respect and dignity and that hatred and discrimination did more than just hurt the individual it was aimed at – it hurt the very essence of what America stands for.

My sister and I grew up in the mid-50’s and early 60’s in Danville, Virginia, located right on the North Carolina border. Danville’s claims to fame included being the home of Dan River Cotton Mills, the world’s biggest tobacco market and the last capitol of the Confederacy. Throughout our youth, we saw first-hand what segregation looked like. Students of color stood about 100 yards from our bus stop every school day waiting for their school bus to pick them up, drive by our school and go another 10 miles to be dropped off at their own school which may have been separate, but it was not equal. Our mother worked downtown on Saturdays at the Five & Dime. My sister and I would catch the bus that came by our house and ride it into town. We always sat up front. People of color always sat in back. When we would go with our mom to a little restaurant for lunch, you couldn’t help but see the sign at the door that said “Whites Only.” There were drinking fountains in Danville. Most of them were for whites. The others were for “Negroes.” At the Rialto Theatre on a Saturday afternoon, a kid could watch three movies for a quarter. If you were white, you sat down front. If you were not, you sat in the balcony. Always.

As we celebrate again this month the life of a great civil rights pioneer, I still remember what it was like growing up in Danville, but I’ll never know what it was like growing up black there. Now, my family and I live in Delaware, of course. As a Delawarean, I believe it’s important to remember the important role that our state has played in the civil rights movement. As Vice-Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery, Judge Collins J. Seitz became the first judge in the nation to order the desegregation of a public university. In the spring of 1952, he became the first judge in the nation to order the integration of public elementary and high schools. These landmark cases helped forge the way for further civil rights reform and helped cement Delaware’s reputation as the First State.

Delaware was also the home of many other civil rights firsts. Peter “Father” Spencer founded the first independent African American church in the United States. William Julius “Judy” Johnson played in the Negro Baseball leagues during the 1920’s and went on to become the first African American assistant head coach for a major league baseball team in 1954. Johnson Field at Frawley Stadium, located in Wilmington, is named for him. Louis Redding became the first African American attorney to be admitted by the Delaware State Bar Association. He went on to play a prominent role in the legal battles to desegregate Delaware’s public school system.

After Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968, many people expressed their outrage at this horrible event by turning their anger against the world around them. The Wilmington riots of 1968 were a direct result of the poverty and hopelessness that many African Americans felt when faced with an unfair justice system and a shortage of economic opportunities.

As we saw during Hurricane Katrina, the effects of poverty and the feeling of hopelessness that often accompanies it still exist in America today. We must do everything we can to make sure that all citizens have an equal opportunity to pursue their dreams and to live in a safe and peaceful society. By taking these steps, the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. continues to thrive and flourish. His determination to use non-violent means to change the world is an example to us all and we owe it to his legacy to continue his quest for justice and economic equality for all Americans.

The words of Martin Luther King that I personally find most inspiring, though, can be found in a 1968 sermon called “The Drum Major Instinct.” It was a message that focused on service to others. Dr. King said that day, “Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s ‘Theory of Relativity’ to serve. You don’t have to know the Second Theory of Thermal Dynamics in Physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love, and you can be that servant.”

To that I can only add, “Amen.” Thank you, Dr. King, for your selfless and courageous service. Although your life was tragically ended almost 38 years ago, you still serve as an inspiration to us all almost four decades later. Black and white. Young and old. Rich and poor.

January 9, 2006 - Wilmington, DE:

(Part 2 of 2)

Flying home Sunday evening with my sons, I told them that I saw a big difference between the 2006 show in Detroit and the one I attended in 2004. We still saw yesterday a number of new muscle cars, trucks and SUV’s with big engines and big appetites for fuel. Having said that though, there is a far greater focus this year on fuel economy, more environmentally-friendly vehicles, and flexible fuel capability which allows a behemoth like the Ford Super Chief pick-up truck to run on either gasoline, 85% ethanol or hydrogen. Ford also unveiled a dynamic concept roadster called the Reflex, which is equipped with gull-wing doors and the first diesel-hybrid engine that I’ve seen in a passenger vehicle, a concept that makes a lot of sense as we continue to cut diesel emissions. Even large vehicles on display that have yet to be outfitted with hybrid power plants or highly-efficient new diesel engines have seen their weight reduced or their Hemi-like engines modified to run on half of their available cylinders during much of their operation, resulting in significant fuel savings.

Along with the Ford Reflex, another encouraging event involving next-generation, low-emission diesel engines was made by Daimler/Chrysler. Code-worded “Blue Tech,” this highly-efficient diesel power plant will be made available on Mercedes’ vehicles beginning in 2008. In addition to having dramatically lower emissions than internal combustion engines, Blue Tech will also meet both the EPA’s and all 50 states’ clean air requirements - thus becoming the first 50-state diesel engine in the 21st century. Daimler/Chrysler expects this new technology to quickly find its way into a number of its other vehicles later in this decade.

Another difference between this year and the 2004 auto show relates to the lower profile that fuel cell-powered vehicles took this year, with one notable exception – Honda. Featured in the Honda “show room” was a beautiful deep maroon 4-door concept sedan that is powered by fuel cells. Close by, the full-size underpinning - or chassis - of the vehicle was on display, complete with power train. A few yards further away was a box about the size of the air conditioning unit alongside our home in Delaware. The box is called a Honda Home Energy System. Once installed in a home, it will use hydrogen to provide fuel for ones vehicles. Electricity produced but not needed at that location can then be sold back to the region’s electric grid for use by other grid customers. Those folks from Honda, many of whose vehicles are made in the U.S. today, are clever. Not only did their new Civic and Ridgeline walk away with ‘Car of the Year’ and ‘Truck of the Year’ awards this past Sunday, but the company appears poised to help lead the industry into a fuel cell economy over the course of the next decade.

If they do, American automotive manufacturers may find themselves having to play catch up. However, what we saw this weekend in Detroit suggests that while the Motor City is still behind in a number of respects, there is a renewed commitment to innovation, quality, efficiency and more environmentally-friendly vehicles, suggesting that the “Big 3” aren’t about to throw in the towel any time soon. They certainly put on a good show in any event. The next year or two will show us that they can also put on the road cars, trucks, vans, SUV’s and crossover vehicles that people here and around the world in the words of GM’s Bob Lutz, “just gotta have.”

January 8, 2006 - Detroit, MI:

(Part 1 of 2)

As the lights went down in Cobo Arena, DaimlerChrysler’s John Bozzella leaned over to my 15 and 17-year-old sons and me and said, “If we were in Hollywood, this would be the Oscars.” We weren’t in Hollywood, though. We were in Detroit. And, it wasn’t the Oscars. It was the North American International Auto Show.

Most people don’t think of Delaware as a place where a lot of cars, trucks or vans are made; however, when the First State’s GM and DaimlerChrysler assembly plants are operating at something approaching full capacity, more motor vehicles per capita are made in Delaware that in any state in America. The plants provide several thousand of the best manufacturing jobs in Delaware. Each of the plants has been on the chopping block several times, and I’ve worked closely with both management and union leaders at both plants to do whatever needs to be done - including visiting Detroit a couple of times each year - to keep them open and pumping out ever-improving vehicles.

In addition to unveiling the new Imperial and Challenger concept vehicles, DaimlerChrysler also took the wraps off of another new vehicle - the Chrysler Aspen - which it will begin assembling at its Newark, Del., assembly plant later this summer along with the venerable Dodge Durango. A year from this fall, hybrid Durangos will also start rolling off the assembly line at Newark, the first fruit of a GM-DaimlerChrysler-BMW partnership to create the next generation of hybrid-powered vehicles. They can’t come soon enough!

Even with the welcomed introduction of the Aspen, I reminded North American CEO Tom LaSorda that there’s still plenty of unused capacity at the Newark plant, a point with which he readily agreed. He even went a bit further in acknowledging that “our” plant will likely be on the short list of plants considered when the company needs to find a place to start building other new vehicles that will be added to the company’s lineup in the months ahead. DaimlerChrysler is moving toward a manufacturing concept that they call 3 + 1. It’s a common sense approach to flexible manufacturing that allows companies to build three different kinds of vehicles simultaneously at one plant. The plant can adjust the volume of each of the three models as the marketplace requires, while simultaneously working on a pilot project for future production.

Two years ago, here at the auto show, GM unveiled a new roadster - the Pontiac Solstice - and announced that it would be built at their Boxwood Road assembly plant, just a couple of miles outside of Newark, Del. Six months ago, the first Solstice rolled off the assembly line. It has drawn great reviews ever since, and has become one very hot car. By the time this summer rolls around, a second new roadster, the Saturn SKY, unveiled at last year’s auto show, will begin rolling off the assembly line at the Boxwood Road assembly plant. In anticipation of that launch, and facing strong demand for the Solstice, GM added a third shift this month at its Delaware facility, a move that sharply contrasts with GM’s recent decision to close its assembly plants in nearby Baltimore and Linden, New Jersey.

The Philadelphia Inquirer ran a big story about the Solstice late last year under the headline: “The Car That Saved Wilmington.” It’s probably more accurate to say that the Kappa platform, on which the car is built, may be the savior. The SKY will be built on that platform as well. On some of the SKY roadsters, the nameplates will be replaced with Opel nameplates before being shipped to Europe. I reminded any number of GM officials on Sunday, from CEO Rick Waggoner to Jill Lajdziak (whose responsibilities include Boxwood Road), that there is a new world-class auto terminal at the port of Wilmington just six miles from their assembly plant. “We want your export business,” I told them. Their initial response suggested we had a good chance at getting it, too.

As we walked into the enormous GM “show room” in Cobo arena, Jill took my sons and I into one of the coolest demonstrations we witnessed – The SKY Box. Inside the large dark room we had entered, a barely-visible Saturn SKY was located on a pedestal several feet off the ground. When the door closed, a two-minute light and music show began which was quite unlike any I’ve ever seen - sequentially displaying on the roadster’s surface many of the components lying underneath. That technological display drew a few “ohhhs” and “ahhhs” from my teenage sons. My reaction was less restrained.

Before saying goodbye to the GM brass, I thanked them for their confidence in the Boxwood plant and its workforce, and I reminded them that there is plenty of unused capacity there. Legendary “car man” Bob Lutz – godfather of the Pontiac Solstice, the Dodge Viper and many other great vehicles over the years – shared with me that the company will be considering whether additional models, or derivatives, should be built on the Kappa platform. That’s encouraging news, because if GM decides to build them, there is a good chance that work will be done at Boxwood Road as well.

January 3, 2006 - Wilmington, DE:

Five years ago today, at high noon, I stepped down as Governor of Delaware, stood up in the U.S. Senate, and took an oath to succeed Senator Bill Roth. The day before, I had walked through Legislative Hall, through Woodburn – the Governor’s House – and through the Governor’s office to say so long to many of the dedicated people I’d been privileged to work with during the previous eight years. While I’m sure that one or two of them were glad to see me head for the door, it was still hard to say goodbye. Working together, we had accomplished a lot over the course of those years. We balanced budgets, cut taxes, overhauled public education, reformed welfare, earned Delaware its first AAA credit ratings, cemented Delaware’s reputation as a great place to start and grow a business, preserved farm land and open space, and more.

Among the questions I’ve been most asked since that day five years ago is, “Which job do you like most – governor or senator?” Invariably, I’ve replied, “I like them both, but they’re very different kinds of jobs.” Come to think of it, I feel much the same way about Dover and Washington, D.C. I like them both, but they’re very different cities. By that, I’m not talking about the geographical boundaries or populations of each town. Nor am I talking about the kind of issues we face in a state capitol versus those we face in our nation’s capitol. It won’t come as a surprise to most people, but it really is tough to get things done in Washington, even when we agree on 90 percent of what needs to be done to address a particular problem or challenge. It isn’t because there aren’t any good people in D.C. There are plenty of them, just like in Delaware. Some are Democrats, some are Republicans and some are more independent-minded souls.

Among other things, though, what’s missing most days in Washington is a commitment to working across the aisle on a consistent basis, the idea of sharing credit for accomplishments, and the sense of optimism that if we want something badly enough and will work hard enough, we can accomplish just about anything, even in a state as small as Delaware or a country as large as America.

When I get off the train in D.C. each morning and walk up Delaware Avenue to the Capitol, I try to bring with me some of the same ingredients that have enabled Delaware to succeed over the years – bipartisanship, a willingness to share credit, a refusal to give up.

Now the conventional wisdom around Washington these days is that not much will get done this year. After all, the emerging scandals are proving to be a real and growing distraction. Our country is badly divided over Iraq. Mid-term elections are ten months away, and both sides are looking for advantage wherever they can find it. Neither the President nor the Congress enjoys the trust and confidence of the electorate, and neither is in a position to exert strong, effective leadership at this juncture.

All of that may be true, but it’s also true that there’s still plenty of work to do, and the American people expect us to find a way somehow to get a lot of it done. Maybe that sounds a bit Pollyannaish, or as one of my friends likes to say, “That’s the triumph of man’s hope over experience, Tom.” Perhaps he’s right. But I believe it was Henry Ford who liked to say, “If you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” I think we can. We need to defy the odds and make progress on many fronts in 2006.

I’ve learned a lot over the past five years. One of the things I’ve come to believe is that a growing and important part of my job in the Senate is to get people of good will in both parties to work together to solve problems. Fortunately, there are others with whom I serve in the Senate who feel that’s an important part of their job, too. More than ever, those of us who share this conviction need to put our experience to work, along with our willingness to reach across the aisle, our belief in sharing credit and our spirit of optimism. If we do, we can defy both the odds and the skeptics to triumph over experience this year. At least that’s my hope as this special day, the fifth anniversary of my service in the United States Senate, comes to a close.

December 22, 2005 - Wilmington, DE:

This will be my final posting of 2005. Before I sign off for the year, I’d like to take a moment and reflect on some of the blessings that we enjoy as Americans and on what is truly important during this time of year. After we finished up our legislative work in the Senate during the wee hours of this morning, I shared a ride back to Delaware with my colleague in the Senate, Senator Joe Biden. The last train out of Washington heading north had left long ago, but we were anxious to get home, so we climbed into a car and started the two-hour drive back to Wilmington on an almost deserted I-95. It’s a ride that we usually take together about once each year, and it gives us a chance to kick back a bit and reflect on what’s important in our work and in our lives. Like Joe, I look forward to spending Christmas in Delaware with my family, as they are the most important part of our lives. I know that it probably sounds corny, but my wife and children keep me grounded and help to remind me of why I ran for office in the first place – to make our country and the world a better place for them and for future generations.

During this time of year, I cannot help but think of all the people who are unable to be with their loved ones during this holiday season. Included among them are the brave men and women of our armed forces who are serving around the world to protect us here at home. They are in my heart and in my prayers, and I hope that they are in yours, as well. Their sacrifice cannot be overstated. Both they and their families deserve our thanks and our support. Let’s continue to provide them with both.

The victims of Hurricane Katrina are also in my thoughts and prayers. During last night’s debate, Louisiana Senators Mary Landrieu and David Vitter reminded us that the destruction we witnessed across the Gulf Coast in late August continues to disrupt countless lives there. As we help them pick up the pieces and put their lives back together, I am reminded of, and inspired by, stories of remarkable courage demonstrated by many in the face of, and in the wake of, that storm. Similarly, I am inspired by the manner in which the world community came together to show their support of storm victims here and in places like Pakistan by donating their time and treasure to the rebuilding efforts and to helping storm and earthquake victims who were, in some cases, half a world away. Progress is being made to help the victims of these tragedies, but the going is slow, and we still have a long way to go before those regions will be whole again. We can’t give up, though, and I’m encouraged that we won’t.

Finally, as tempers flared in the Senate late last night, and we wrestled with issues like drilling in ANWR, extending the Patriot Act, and adopting a defense bill and a budget plan, I was reminded of some of the words of Winston Churchill. Among the more famous of his sayings are these. First, with tongue firmly in cheek, he once observed, “There are two things that people should not see made: sausages and laws.’’ Churchill also once said, “Democracy is the worst form of government devised by wit of man, but for all the rest.” He was probably right on both counts. But Churchill also said, in rallying the British people during the lowest point of WWII, “We shall never, never, never give up.” They didn’t either, and the rest is history. While we were not able to achieve all of our legislative goals of this past year, none of us have given up. I believe that we can still take comfort in the fact that we live in a country where it’s okay to have differences of opinion. It’s also important to remember that when we work hard and in a spirit of bipartisanship, we are able to make progress on many fronts, as we did from time to time during 2005. I am hopeful that when we return to Congress in the new year, we will return with that spirit restored in all of us, and armed with that spirit, go on to make America safer and stronger for us all.

As always, I wish you and your family both joy and peace during this holiday season and many blessings in the new year to come.

December 16, 2005 – Washington, DC:

I'm encouraged by the turnout in Iraq’s parliamentary elections. Previous elections were marred by poor voter turnout in some parts of the country, especially among Iraq's minority Sunni population, but Thursday's turnout shows that more and more Iraqis are choosing to participate in the electoral process and are willing to give this new democracy a fighting chance. 

I want to acknowledge and honor again the brave men and women of our armed forces who have done such a magnificent job in securing the polling sites and helping to create an environment where the Iraqi people feel secure enough to participate in the democratic process. The courage and honor that our troops continue to display is second to none.

The real test now for the Iraqis - and for Americans, too - comes after the votes are counted in a week or two. A coalition government must be formed. A prime minister and president, along with a host of cabinet ministers, must be selected. An operational government must be stood up. In addition, the constitution must be rewritten, all while an armed insurgency is underway.

For the United States, I believe that the election, and the likely emergence of a coalition government in Iraq, give us a great opportunity - not so much so stay the course, but to alter it. I said as much to the President today when a number of my Senate colleagues and I met with him, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and - joining us by satellite video from Baghdad - Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and General George Casey, our military commander. 

This altered course would allow us to begin a moderate but significant redeployment of U.S. troops beginning early next year. Taking this step will demonstrate to the Iraqi people - many of whom see us as occupiers, not liberators - that we have no plans to be in their country on a permanent basis or to monopolize their abundant oil supply. Taking this step will also undermine the latent support that insurgent forces enjoy from some Iraqis.

As we figure out what troop levels we'll need in Iraq in order to help support Iraqi security forces and secure critical infrastructure, we need to enlist a new coalition of the willing. While we need to do all we can to help Iraq succeed, doing so is not the sole responsibility of the United States. The world community - including Europe and other democratic nations, as well as Iraq's friends and neighbors in the Middle East - needs to step up to the plate. They all have a dog in this fight and, therefore, we should all share the burden of helping Iraq move toward self-reliance. Democratic countries should help the Iraqi leadership set up and run government ministries and write sound policies, while Arab countries could help by trying to subdue ethnic rivalries in Iraq, forgiving some of the Iraqi debt they hold, and making investments in critical infrastructure and promising business opportunities to help get Iraq’s economy moving again.

Iraq – December 2, 2005 – 11:45pm :

Camp Victory, Baghdad Iraq – Delaware Service Members .

Our Air Force C-130 took off from Kuwait air base at 7:30am, climbed to altitude and headed for Iraq. Off of our right wing you could see Iran in the distance. The C-130 cargo aircraft is a durable workhorse of both the Air Force and Air Guard units around the country, including the Delaware Air National Guard. This particular model is 42 years old, making it older than any of the seven crewmembers aboard.

Our flight engineer on this flight was 12-year veteran Sonya Hawkins, a staff sergeant from Kentucky. Her unit is home-based near Fayetteville, N.C. where her seven-year-old son lives with family friends while his mom is away for a four-month deployment. Sonya talks with him by phone several times a week and communicates with him by email a couple of times each day. Her husband works for the FBI out of an office near D.C. and gets to be with their son several weekends each month. Sonya holds a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering that she earned while on active duty. Lt. Rod Jones is the crew's navigator. He's from Ohio. His wife and their three daughters live near Fayetteville, like Sonya. He talks with them by phone several times each week and by email almost daily. The favorite part of his job, he says, is carrying planeloads of servicemen and women out of Iraq as they head for home. "They really whoop it up in the back of the plane," he says. The young flight members are an impressive team. They demonstrate a lot of enthusiasm for their work and for flying together. Their professionalism belies their age.

Our descent into Baghdad was unlike any descent that you'll ever make in a civilian airliner. We donned our flak jackets and helmets as we approached the airport at altitude and then began a steep descent almost directly over Baghdad International. Lt. Jones and the aircrafts' load master stood ready to discharge flares immediately from the aircraft if heat-seeking missiles were fired at us during the descent. The flares trick the missiles into pursuing them instead of the aircraft, but flares are of no help against anti-aircraft artillery, small arms fire, or AK-47 fire. The descent and landing proved to be exhilarating but, fortunately, uneventful. "We cheated death again," I said to the crew as I shook their hands and thanked them for the ride and for their service to our country.

We exited the aircraft still wearing our flak jackets and helmets, climbed into our waiting vehicles and drove directly to a nearby palace that Saddam Hussein had built for his mother. Just inside the entrance, I was greeted by twenty or so members of the Delaware National Guard who had been brought together to say hello to their old commander-in-chief and (former governor). They were from all over Delaware, including Seaford, Bridgeville, Milton, Milford, Claymont, and Newark. It was great to see them. I spoke with each one and shook every hand. We took a lot of individual photos and then a group shot before an aide to General George Casey, our American military commander in Iraq, hustled me off to start our scheduled meeting with the general.

Thus began a series of intense discussions that lasted throughout the day and into the evening in the Baghdad area with the leaders of America's military forces, as well as with our U.S. Ambassador and his senior staff, Iraq's Prime Minister, other Iraqi civilian leaders and General Babakir, Chief of Staff of the Iraqi armed forces. Virtually all of them stayed "on message," but the message was not the one I expected. Almost to a person, they predicted that turnout in Iraq's upcoming December 15th parliamentary elections would be strong and that no group or party would emerge with the majority of the 275 seats up for grabs. Each of them acknowledged that putting together a coalition government after the elections might be tough, but it would have to be done. Both U.S. and Iraqi military and civilian leaders with whom we met also called for beginning significant American troop redeployments from Iraq next year and for continuing those redeployments through 2007 as the combat readiness of Iraqi troops improves.

I agree with them. There are plenty of people in Iraq who view our troops as occupiers, not liberators. They believe we are intent on remaining in Iraq indefinitely in large numbers to ensure U.S. access to Iraqi oil. We need to start making clear that this is not the case and begin doing so as early as next month. Otherwise, I fear that our troops, like the 10 Marines killed today in a horrific attack near Fallujah, will continue to remain targets of opportunity unnecessarily for months or even years to come.

Early on Saturday morning, I'll climb on another airplane in Amman, Jordan and begin to wind my way back home to Delaware. God willing, I'll be home with my family by Saturday night. Along the way, I plan to read through copious notes that I've taken over the past five days, as we've sojourned through five countries in this part of the world. I want to reflect on what we've heard and learned. This coming Monday, I'll share with Delawareans the conclusions I've reached and will then recommend a path forward, based on those conclusions, to my Senate colleagues and to the Bush Administration later this month when the Senate reconvenes. Once I've done so, I would welcome your comments and thoughts in return.

Saudi Arabia & Kuwait – December 1, 2005 – 9:45pm :

We rolled out of our hotel around 7:30am and piled into the vehicles waiting outside. Led by a Saudi police car with lights flashing and sirens wailing, we charged out onto the road and into Riyadh's rush hour traffic in a country where terrorist attacks still occur. The sea of cars, trucks, and vans parted in front of us allowing our six-vehicle convoy to pass through at speeds approaching 80 mph. For a moment I thought, "I wonder if this is how Moses felt leading the children of Israel through the Red Sea with the Egyptians in hot pursuit?" When a car failed to get out of our way quickly, our driver would honk his horn and jam on his brakes or swerve to avoid a collision. One near miss began to follow another. I tugged on my shoulder harness and seat belt to make sure they were secure and motioned to my colleague to do the same. Then, without warning, our driver slammed on the brakes to avoid running into a car that pulled out in front of us. The vehicle behind us tried to stop but couldn't quite pull it off and plowed into us. Rather than stopping to survey the damage, we just resumed speed and continued on. Our Saudi driver looked at the two of us through the rear view mirror. "You okay," he asked? "My neck! My neck!," I moaned, but when we hopped out of our car a few minutes later, I gave him a big thumbs up and said, "Thanks for a ride I'll not soon forget." And I won't.

If I was sleepy when we left the hotel, I was wide awake by the time we walked into our breakfast meeting with the Saudi-American Chamber of Commerce. Twenty-five businessmen and spouses were awaiting us, including representatives of companies like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Price-Waterhouse, AstraZeneca, and Exxon Mobil. I asked for a show of hands of all who were incorporated in Delaware. Almost every hand went up. When we asked them later to share their concerns with us, they focused on these three:

• The importance of improving U.S.-Saudi relations;
• The need to expedite the processing of visas which now take many months to process, creating enormous backlogs;
• The loss of military sales to Saudis by U.S. defense contractors to other countries who have no inhibitions about providing the Saudis with the very latest weapons technology.

Following breakfast, we headed for the U.S. Embassy, a large fortress-like structure. There, some of our delegation received intelligence updates before joining the U.S. Ambassador and his senior team for an in-depth briefing on a wide range of subjects. Among them were the concerns raised at the Chamber breakfast as well as the possibility of Iran sparking a nuclear arms race with the Saudis if Iran proceeds with its nuclear program. It was a sobering conversation.

When it ended, we went to a working lunch with Embassy staff and several very impressive Saudis from the oil ministry. One of them is a member of the royal family, and a Prince to boot, as well as the Saudi's deputy oil minister. He explained how the oil industry has changed dramatically over the past two decades and is now run largely by Saudis, not expatriates. Vertically integrated operations cover everything from exploratory activities, drilling, oil and gas recovery and refining operations to producing products for export and to provide feed stocks to a growing petro-chemical industry there that enables the Saudis to eat our industry's lunch with natural gas prices barely one-quarter of our own.

After a one-hour flight following lunch, we touched down in Kuwait City and headed for an abbreviated country team briefing by U.S. personnel. Kuwaitis remembers how the U.S. led a broad coalition of countries in the early 1990's to drive Saddam Hussein's brutal army out of Kuwait. They continue to show their gratitude to this day in extraordinary ways. For example, on the heels of Hurricane Katrina, Kuwaitis provided over $500 million of relief assistance to victims, almost as much as the rest of the world combined. In addition, the Kuwaitis have supported the removal of Saddam Hussein from the outset. The country provided for virtually all of the fuel needs of coalition forces in 2003-4 at no charge and deeply discounts fuel costs today. Moreover, Kuwait is hosting within its border over 20,000 members of coalition forces from across the globe – FOR FREE! Kuwait also allows the great majority of material, equipment, weapons and personnel for the war effort to come through its airports and seaports en route to Iraq. Roughly 1,000 trucks cross the border into Iraq each day from Kuwait.

Kuwait isn't about to go broke, though, despite all of its generosity. They've still got enough oil money left over to provide for its 1 million citizens' free health care, free education, heavily subsidized utilities, deeply discounted homes to buy, and generous retirement benefits, including the ability of women to retire after working for just 15 years. Roughly 90 percent of Kuwaitis work in the public sector or in their oil industry. American taxpayers who sometimes wonder if we get a day's work for a day's pay from all of our public servants might take some comfort in the words of the Kuwaiti Prime Minister who said of his public sector workforce last summer that Kuwait would be better served if 90 percent of them would just stay home every day and collect their paychecks! And, no they don't have telecommuting in Kuwait yet.

The day ended on as upbeat note, though, as I went for a long run at dusk through Kuwait City with one of the terrific U.S. Marines who is accompanying our delegation on this mission. He wasn't along for protection either, because today we were in a country where citizens wave at Americans and greet them, not take pot shots at or attempt to kidnap them.

Jordan & Saudi Arabia – November 30, 2005 – 11:30 pm:

We grabbed a little breakfast at our hotel in Amman, Jordan, first thing this morning, headed for the airport, climbed on our military aircraft and took off for Riyadh, the capitol of Saudi Arabia. Two hours later, we were on the ground there shaking hands with the U.S. Ambassador at the bottom of our plane's ladder. A "control officer" from the American embassy, who was assigned to work with our delegation walked us to an awaiting vehicle. The officer introduced himself in part by saying that his wife grew up in Delaware and in nearby Pennsville, New Jersey. His sister-in-law Lynn Davison still lives in Delaware. "Small world," I said. As the American-made vehicle we climbed into roared out of the airport and onto a four-lane highway, we immediately passed a shiny blue Dodge Durango made in Newark, Delaware. I started to feel at home even though our visit to Saudi Arabia was the first by a Congressional delegation in two years.

Saudi Arabia sits on roughly a quarter of the world's known oil reserves. With oil prices still hovering around $55 a barrel, Saudi Arabia is awash in cash. Every direction we looked suggested that the Saudis weren't reluctant to spend it either. Late-model cars from all over the world filled the highways. Breathtaking architectural structures reached from what used to be the desert floor up to the sky. And, where once there was only sand, trees, shrubs, flowers and grass now grow. In a kingdom where the population was overwhelmingly nomadic, barely 75 years ago, today almost 95 percent of the people live in urban centers like Riyadh.

Our afternoon in Riyadh was spent meeting with what could have been called by the late King Fahd "My Three Sons." One is King Abdullah, another is Crown Prince Sultan who also serves as Defense Minister, and the third is Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal. All are in their late 70s or early 80s. Two of them, the Crown Prince and the King, looked like they could have been sent right from central casting. On the other hand, their Foreign Minister brother, looked and sounded like he could've graduated from Princeton. And in fact, he did a number of years ago. Together, the three of them and their family have provided and will likely continue to provide leadership for the kingdom of Saudi Arabia for years to come. While we met separately with them in opulent palaces, and I doubt that they had rehearsed their comments before hand, they certainly were remarkably on message. Each offered comments that were consistent with the others. On the need for the U.S. and Saudis to set aside their differences since 9/11and begin to cooperate together again, King Abdullah said, "In Iraq, what is done is done. We share many common concerns. We need to begin working together again."

All three declared that an Iraq which disintegrates is intolerable and unimaginable. They acknowledged that their country has an obligation to lead other nations in the region to help stabilize the new government emerging in Iraq while containing the growth of Iranian influence in the region.

King Abdullah told us of an unprecedented, surprise visit two days earlier by the personal emissary of Iran's Supreme Leader. And while the King did not divulge the full content of their conversation he did say to us, that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia share the same enemy with respect to Iraq. And he added, "I think you know who that is." As the meeting concluded and we walked away, I couldn't help but wonder if he was talking about Iran or simply about terrorism in general. Several hours later, I've concluded that he was alluding to Iran, and I am reminded of the old adage – "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

We wrapped up our day at the residence of the U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and his wife. Their home is stunning! As they gave us the cook's tour, I suggested to them their residence gives new meaning to the term public housing, and they agreed. We were joined for an outdoor reception and dinner around the pool by several dozen prominent Saudi leaders from business, government, and academia. Over dinner at my table, two women – one a dean of a local university in her 50s and the second a successful young businesswoman half her age – spoke with us about a growing tolerance in their country toward women and the opportunities afforded them. Both women told us that they believed next year's round of municipal elections would witness a first – female candidates. Not only are attitudes towards women evolving here they said, slowly but surely democracy is beginning to take root, as well. And, its introduction will benefit both Saudi females and males.

Israel & Jordan  - November 29, 2005 – 11:45 pm:

The second day of our trip, we woke up to a sunny 70 degrees in the original land of milk and honey.

Before the morning would end, our delegation would meet with the Foreign Affairs Advisor to the dynamic new leader of the Israeli Labor Party and be briefed by a senior Israeli intelligence officer before heading for Ramallah in a bullet proof SUV.  There, we would meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei before sitting down with the leadership of the Palestinian-American Chamber of Commerce to talk about what all Chambers of Commerce are interested in – jobs. 

Qurei was a chief negotiator of the Oslo Accords and worked closely with the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the 1990s.  Despite the title he holds today, Qurei has little power in the current Palestinian government.  Meeting with us, he reflected back on those early negotiations and recalled these words of Rabin, "We will fight terror as if there was no peace process; We will pursue peace as if there was no terror."  A decade after Rabin’s assassination those words still ring true in the Middle East that struggles to reach a lasting peace.  

Leaving Prime Minister Qurei, we headed across the street to a meeting with Palestinian business leaders, who had two main requests.  First that the U.S. stay involved in peace negotiations, and second, that the U.S. continue to support the creation of jobs for Palestinians, whose unemployment rate exceeds 40 percent.

From Ramallah, it was on to meet the King of Jordan.

Our flight from Tel Aviv to Amman, Jordan, took less than 30 minutes and carried us over some of the driest land on earth.  Arid or not, though, Jordan is playing a key role on many fronts these days – in the war against terrorism, in supporting the peace process in Israel, and in building a more stable Iraq.  Jordan also turns out to be “training central” for all kinds of activities, too:

• 25,000 Iraqi police recruits trained to date and another 10,000 in the pipeline;
• 600 Iraqi counter-terrorism commandos trained; and,
• 1,200 Iraqi border guards and customs officials trained, as well.

That’s not all either.  Jordanians even train guard dog handlers, air traffic controllers, and airplane mechanics.  And, in a new twist on “training the trainer,” Jordanians have also trained 800 Americans to go home and work with American units preparing to deploy to Iraq.  Why?  To sensitize the U.S. troops to Iraqi customs and culture.  There’s one thing, though, that Jordan doesn’t train. That’s Iraqi military officers.  They were expected to.  The U.S. even invested $50 million to build a training center outside of Amman for just that purpose, but the government of Iraq put the put the kibosh on it.  Today the center sits empty and unused. 

Jordan is led by King Abdullah, son of the late King Hussein.  We met with him for over an hour this afternoon at his residence.  Nice digs.  This King is one impressive monarch.  Educated in England and in the U.S., he speaks with just a touch of a British accent and is knowledgeable on a broad range of subjects.  Once the commander of Jordan’s Special Forces, King Abdullah isn’t afraid to do what he thinks is right either, even if it doesn’t always comport with public opinion in his country.  He’s married to a beautiful woman, Queen Rania, who recently gave birth to their fourth child. 

King Abdullah’s got a sense of humor, too.  I kidded him as we were leaving and asked him if his children had ever seen the Disney film “The Lion King.”  He laughed and said that they had.  I reminded him of one of the songs from the film, “It’s Great To Be King,” and asked him if it really is all that great to be king. “Being king in this part of the world is a lot of work,” he said.  “If the country you were king of was wedged between Norway and Sweden, I bet it would be a lot easier.”  He smiled when he said it, but he wasn’t kidding.  Jordan is bordered by Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Iraq.  As we drove away from the palace, I thought about how fortunate our country is that he’s holding down the job in Jordan.  Let’s hope he holds on to it for a long time.

Jerusalem - November 28, 2005 - Midnight:

After several weeks of preparation, the hour of our congressional delegation's departure for the Middle East had come. It was 6pm on Sunday evening. Minutes later, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), U.S. Representative Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) and I were airborne, heading for Munich, Germany aboard a United airliner on the first leg of our fact-finding mission. Eight hours – and two briefing books later – we touched down in Munich. There, we quickly transferred over to a U.S. military aircraft assigned to us and took off for the last four hours of our journey today. When we landed the second time, we were in Israel, the first stop of a mission that would also take us to Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq before heading home next weekend.

Two hours after landing at Tel Aviv, we were being briefed in Jerusalem by U.S. embassy senior staff and by the U.S. Consul General Jake Walles who, incidentally, grew up two blocks from my family's home in Wilmington, Delaware. As soon as the briefing was over, we jumped into a Suburban with our security detail and headed across town to the Prime Minister's office for an hour-long meeting with Ariel Sharon. I had been at the nearby Knesset just eight months earlier when Sharon took on his own Likud party to push for, and win, approval of a controversial plan to pull Israeli settlers and forces unilaterally out of the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank. I had returned to the U.S. in late March more convinced than ever that one of the best ways to battle global terrorism is for the U.S. to put as much energy into brokering a negotiated settlement in the Middle East that provides the Palestinians with a homeland of their own and the Israelis with peace and secure borders. I phoned Secretary of State Rice in early April and then met with her in DC earlier this month to encourage her to do all that she could to jumpstart both the peace process and the Palestinian economy. How? By negotiating an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians that allows greater freedom of movement of Palestinians and their goods in and out of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. To her credit, Rice did just that two weeks ago in Jerusalem in a major breakthrough signed by both Sharon and Palestinian President Abbas.

Likud Party hardliners, already angered by Sharon's unilateral disengagement from Gaza and the West Bank were further inflamed by this latest concession agreed to by their party's cofounder. Sharon, rather than trying to calm down his angry Likud colleagues announced this past weekend that he was abandoning the party he helped to create over three decades ago. Instead, Prime Minister Sharon today founded a brand new centrist party simply called "Forward," through which he will seek to build a grand coalition to govern Israel as it seeks to move toward a permanent peace settlement.

If that wasn't enough excitement for one day, back at our hotel later tonight, we met with Dr. Salam Fayyad, finance minister for the Palestinian Authority who will be retiring from this post later this week. He shared with us that earlier today when Palestinians throughout Gaza and the West Bank tried to vote in the Palestinian primary, voting was disrupted in many places by Palestinian gunmen firing weapons, effectively putting those elections on hold.

It's never dull in Israel or in the Middle East, and today was no exception. The characters are extraordinary and bigger than life, too. Here's Ariel Sharon, I thought as our meeting with him began earlier today. Now, 78 years old, Sharon once again stands poised to lead his country. At the age of 14, he was a company commander during the 1930's in Israel's war of independence. At the age of 26, he led all of Israel's commandos. In the years since, he became Israel's top general and led his country to victories in several Israeli-Arab wars before co-founding the Likud Party and going on to become his country's prime minister. He is widely expected to be successful in establishing a new centrist party and in brokering a final settlement with the Palestinians. He just might succeed too, working with Palestinian leaders like President Abbas and Dr. Salam Fayyad.

At the end of our meeting with Sharon, I stayed behind for a minute to ask him one final question. That question was, "To what do you attribute the remarkable success and staying power in this political cauldron called Israel?" He thought for a moment, smiled, and simply said, "I don't give up." And I thought as we left, neither should we.

WEBSITE – November 21, 2005

Welcome to my new website. We’ve given the site a new look and added features that we hope will make it more useful and easier for you to navigate.

Some things have moved around or work differently, so we hope you’ll spend a few minutes exploring the new layout. As with most changes, there could be some bumps along the way. That’s why we want to hear from you - what works, what doesn’t - as we continue to improve the site. email me >>

The most noticeable change is the overall look and layout of the website. We’ve made the toolbar easier to navigate and taken more screen space for news on the homepage, which will allow us to give you continual updates as major developments take place.

Other improved features include:

Carper’s Corner. My new weblog provides me with a forum to express my personal thoughts about developments within the U.S. Senate and back home in Delaware.

Resource Center. This area of the homepage will allow me to highlight timely issues and provide you with helpful information on these issues.

Better navigation. At the top of every page you’ll find a toolbar that will allow you to visit each section of the website. Each section of the toolbar has a drop-down menu of its subsections, so you can go directly to the feature or area you want.