[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 11] [House] [Page 15564] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]TRIBUTE TO LATE CONGRESSMAN THOMAS J. MANTON The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel) is recognized for 5 minutes. Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I am going to try to speak from the heart, and that is what I want to do, because Tom Manton was my friend. You know, you get to an age where when you hear eulogies and you think that it is someone who lived in the distant past and not one of your colleagues or not one of your contemporaries. And even though Tom was several years older than me, he was certainly one of my contemporaries, because when I came to Congress in 1988, there was no one who was warmer and friendlier and opened his door more to me than Tom Manton. I didn't really know Tom before I came to Congress. I had heard about him. He served on the New York City Council while I was serving in the New York State assembly, and he had a reputation of being this tough guy, maybe a bit gruff, and I didn't really know what to expect. But when I got to know Tom, and I got to know him very, very well, I learned that under this gruffness was this soft underbelly; that he was a very thoughtful and soft-spoken man; a very good person, who really cared about people, really cared about his country; a great life smart, intelligent man who came out of an ordinary working class family in New York City, the way so many of us did, and who worked hard. I am sure he was the first person in his family to go to college. He went to law school and became a good lawyer. He was a very smart intelligent man and he really lived the American dream. That is what so many of us have done, children of immigrants and grandchildren of immigrants. Well, that is really what Tom Manton did. Tom and I became very, very good friends. We were very close. We would go out to dinner and talk a lot. I still have a picture hanging in my office of Tom and myself taken, I think I was just elected but not yet sworn in. I had won the election and Tom signed it and said, ``The New York delegation is richer with your election.'' And that was just the kind of nice thing that he would do, would write it with his own handwriting. It was Tom who encouraged me to go on the Energy and Commerce Committee, which is a great committee but difficult to get on to, and Tom encouraged me. He was a member of the committee and encouraged me to try for the committee, which I did with his help and support, and eventually was made a part of that committee. Tom cared about people. He cared about working people and was very close to labor. He always had very, very close friends because he worked very, very hard for the average person. My colleagues have already talked about what a difference he made in people's lives from the Irish peace process to just caring about every day people, ordinary people back home. After he left Congress, he kept in touch and came down several times doing some lobbying, doing some work. And whenever you needed him to help you, with a campaign contribution or just a good friendly smile or some good friendly advice, Tom was always there. That is why he was such an effective Democratic county leader of Queens County and why his influence really extended beyond his borough, because when people wanted to aspire to leadership positions in the New York City council, be it speaker or whatever, if you got Tom Manton's blessing, you really had a leg up on everybody else in order to achieve that position. And Tom really was very effective in doing that. When you are a political leader, you make tough decisions. You make friends and you make enemies. But everyone knew that Tom Manton was always fair and above board. He told you where you stood, and he was very, very honest with it. A very, very soft-spoken person who really cared about his country, about his state, about his city and, indeed, his friends as well. I would say to Diane and the rest of the family that our lives are all richer because we knew Tom Manton. His memory will live because the benefits he provided to his city and his State and his country will continue to go on and on. I last saw Tom a few years ago during the presidential campaign when there was a rally in his borough for John Kerry. And although I have spoken with Tom since then, that was actually the last time I had physically seen him. And I remember thinking that he didn't look quite as good as I had remembered, and from that point on, with his long illness, which of course culminated in his death. Let me just speak for me, but I think all of us aspire to be the kind of person that Tom Manton was, an honest person coming from working class roots, a working class family, who understood that by helping people, you helped the country and you make a difference in people's lives. Tom, I know, is looking down at us, and I want him and his family to know that he has made a difference in all of our lives, those of us who were fortunate to call him our friend and fortunate enough to call him our colleague. But even those people that never met Tom, that only knew his name, are better because Tom Manton served in the United States Congress and made a difference in their lives as well, a difference in everybody's lives in the United States of America. I am going to miss my good friend. We are all going to miss him. But we are all going to remember him. He is going to live on in our hearts and our minds and with the good work he did to make our country a better place. God bless you, Tom. We will all miss you, but we will never forget you. ____________________