Senate bids a fond adios to Salazar

By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 16, 2009 at 9:57 a.m.
Updated January 16, 2009 at 9:57 a.m.

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Ken Salazar gave his farewell speech to the Senate today.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Ken Salazar bid a soft-spoken farewell to the U.S. Senate, celebrating the family heritage and values that put him on the way to joining President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet as Interior Secretary.

In his last, televised address on the Senate floor this morning, Salazar began by asking that his family genealogy – dating to 1520 – be entered into the official record, and he highlighted the values he learned growing up on a ranch in southern Colorado.

Salazar spoke of how he hoped his relatively short, four-year term in the Senate had helped shed a spotlight on a Hispanic heritage that was "for a long time shoved beneath the dust" of American history, and yet again he urged his Senate colleagues to remember the "forgotten America" outside the big urban areas.

He recalled how in early 2006, shortly after he and now President-elect Barack Obama were first sworn into the Senate, he was tapped to give the traditional re-enactment of former President George Washington's farewell address.

Washington's speech warned about the dangers of partisanship and regionalism. Less than a week before Obama's inauguration as president – and Salazar's expected confirmation to the cabinet – Salazar said, "There is a new hope, with a growing sense we are all in this together ... We are becoming 'one nation.'"

Salazar said Obama embodies that change.

Fellow Senators heaped praise on Colorado's soon-to-be-departing senior senator.

"Parting really is such sweet sorrow," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said. "I have such great respect for this man we call Ken Salazar."

Reid cited Salazar's work on the so-called "Gang of 14" senators who helped broker a truce in a partisan showdown over judicial nominations. And he praised Salazar's role last year in brokering a compromise within the Democratic caucus to allow Sen. Joe Lieberman to keep some key committee assignments even after the one-time Democratic vice presidential nominee became an independent and supported Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain.

"The most important thing I have found about Ken Salazar ... was his ability to be a peacemaker, to reach out and bring us together," Reid said. "He's a peacemaker not bound by labels, but only by his own integrity."

The Senate's leading Republican, Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, said he hated to see Salazar leave the Senate to move into the cabinet.

"The first thing I said to Senator Salazar was, 'Say it ain't so,'" McConnell said.

Salazar faced few challenges on Thursday at his confirmation hearing in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and now he awaits Obama's formal swearing-in as president before he can be officially confirmed to become Interior Secretary. That could happen as early as Tuesday, shortly after the inauguration, or the following day.

When Salazar departs, Gov. Bill Ritter is expected to formally appoint Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet to fill out the remaining two years of Salazar's term. Sen. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, then would become Colorado's "senior" senator in just a few weeks on the job.

Citing Salazar's family heritage, Lieberman called Salazar the "quintessential American."

"We're going to miss this man," Lieberman said.

• January 16, 2009

  10:16 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  T1anda writes:

  To bad Salazar doesn't bid adieu to politics altogether! He is a kiss arse, and Democrat lapdog! Obama is surrounding himself with retreads and kiss-ups.

• January 16, 2009

  10:25 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Who_Me writes:

  The upshot of this is that his national exposure may be more limited than what it would have been as a senator (6 years). The four years as Int. Sec. may turn out to be a "four gone" conclusion.

• January 16, 2009

  10:27 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Knude writes:

  Thats racist to say adios in the headline about a latino man, especially when he is trying to shed his image as a mexican nationalist sympathizer. And Sen. Lieberman should not be catagorizing anyone as a Hyphenated American, when he himself is of a Quasinated Religion. already.

• January 16, 2009

  10:50 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  danirobi writes:

  Can Colorado do the same thing?

• January 16, 2009

  10:54 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  HopiMedicineMan writes:

  Check out the latest Smithsonian on Salazar's ancestors. He and Lieberman are kissing cousins.

• January 16, 2009

  10:56 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Creative_N_Denver writes:

  I have had dealings with him, and he has a popularity with some and those "some" got him this far. Wish him luck and let it go.

• January 16, 2009

  1:28 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  rage_against_the_stupid writes:

  You mean the short timers at the RMN bid their senator a "fond adios".

• January 16, 2009

  1:51 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  jbowen43 writes:

  Salazar earned the respect of his peers because from day one in the senate because he worked for it. I didn't agree with several of his votes and told him so. He listened respectfully and told his side. He acknowledged his mistake in supporting his friend Alberto Gonzales and called for his resignation. He accomplished more in his short stay than any of his republican predecessors and Wayne Allard did in their careers.

• January 16, 2009

  2:11 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  JamesTaylorSucks writes:

  As one last act before finally leaving, Salazar voted Yea on Sundays (1/10/09) Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. Not only did this bill contain over $10 Billion in pork including $1 Billion to rescue salmon in California but it took out of production in Wyoming oil fields containing over 300 million barrels of oil and natural gas fields containing 8.8 trillion cubic feet of gas. Now this guy is in charge of Interior. God help us.

• January 16, 2009

  2:36 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Knude writes:

  He'll be lining the interior of his pockets.

• January 16, 2009

  2:43 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  chickenlittle1234 writes:

  JT$ucks - You state the Public Land Management Act is full of port, but wouldn't it be more like roe if he voted for salmon rescue? Seriously, though, why is that wasteful, unless of course, you're in league with mining interests that have no qualms about sending tons of silt and heavy metals into rivers and streams, choking them of life.

  And finally, Rocky, please please please get rid of the automatic censor. It's incredibly annoying and doesn't stop anyone from posting the words you ostensibly are trying to prohibit.

• January 16, 2009

  3:27 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  BHS1976 writes:

  No accomplishments in the senate, so we should expect the same at Interior. Has the right kind of last name to fill out the cabinet. (change) RMN continues the blatant racism with "adios" I get it, he is a friend to illegals. The big O, mOre Of the same lame appOintments, but since the O knOws nO One Of merit, what cOuld he dO.

• January 16, 2009

  5:05 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Who_Me writes:

  AMF!

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