Well, if you think that’s all true, let me tell you the rest of the story. You know, Saxby said we are good friends, and, in this town, as Harry Truman used to say – for my staff who call me Chairman Weepy – let me get caught up a little bit here. Harry Truman used to say, “If you’re in Washington and you want to have a friend – get a dog.” Well, let me just tell you something: Harry Truman was wrong. I’ve been blessed to have a lot of friends amongst my colleagues: Saxby and Richard Burr (ph.) and Tom Latham, the four of us are somewhat inseparable. Mike Oxley’s here – kind of my big brother. Of course, I try to avoid… he’s (unint.) all the things not to do.
But as Saxby said, in this town, having the relationships and having friends – a support system – it’s critically important; and, obviously, many of you in this room play a role in that support system as well. I want to thank the Foundation – Connie, thank you for your leadership, Linda, all the work that you do, Cal Dooley, my old free enterprise/free market friend on the Ag Committee. We had a tag team for 14 years. In the summer of 1991, he and I stumbled into each other fighting something that the dairy industry wanted to do – that was about as anti-free market as they come. And over the 14 years that we spent – over 14 years ago – the 14 years we spent together on the Ag Committee, we were the two free market voices, Cal and I, and many times we would just walk in the room and the other 46 members would look over and go, “Oh my God, they’re back again.” It’s good to have a lot of great success, but I can tell you one thing: we kept them from doing anything worse than what they had already done.
Let me say, Red, it’s a privilege to be here with you. We’ve been friends for a long time, we’ve worked together on a lot of issues over the years; and when I look around this town, there’s probably – probably – there’s no one more deserving of this award than you – congratulations. And to the Vice President, I can’t tell you how honored I am to be up here on the stage and having you sit in the audience. It really is a privilege for you to be here.
Let me tell you a story: Back in the Summer of 2000 when it became clear that… when it was public that Dick Cheney was going to do the Vice Presidential search for the President, my former Chief of Staff – now works for Carl Rove at the White House, Barry Jackson and I – were sitting around the office one day and looking at each other and we had this conversation about who the next Vice President was going to be. And he and I looked at each other and both said immediately: “Well, it’s pretty clear what’s going to happen: Dick Cheney’s going to be the next Vice President.” And when it happened, we had a glass of wine over it, of course – I probably smoked a cigarette – but, I’ve got to tell you, the President’s made a lot of courageous decisions, he’s been a great leader for our country and for the world; but you only have to look at really one decision as to how good the President really is and that’s when he chose Dick Cheney to be his sidekick. (Applause)
Saxby introduced Debbie and the girls – this is a big moment. I don’t think the three of them have been here together in a long time. And while Debbie gets to town once in a while, the girls are growing up – they don’t get here very often. And it’s not very often that the girls have to put on makeup and really get dressed up; so I can’t tell you how happy I am that they’re here. As you all know, there’s a lot of things that go into being who we are and having a support structure in place in a family that supports you and they’ve been supporting me for a long, long time – thank you very much. (Applause). Now, I’m sitting around the last couple days trying to figure out: what is it that I’m going to talk about? And then you begin to wonder: you know, why am I getting this award? You know, I’m another member, I’m another person who happens to be here, and, yes, I happen to get along with people. And I started to think about what I guess a lot of people think about in a moment like that or maybe at an age like this: when they begin to wonder, you know, why am I who I am?
You know, we all are who we are. Some of us have more assets, no liabilities. Some others, who unfortunately have more liabilities than assets. But I started thinking about growing up in a family where I had eight brothers and three sisters; and you learn a few things growing up in a big family – how to get along with each other. You learn that you’ve got to pitch in and help out around the house. And as the second oldest of this band of 12, you also learned a few leadership skills – how to change diapers, how to baby-sit and how to organize the younger ones. Now if my brothers and sisters were here, you’d hear a lot of stories. And I was thinking about my mother who’s now gone, but my mother would… you know, there were 12 of us – 20 years, one at a time – and never got rattled over anything. I don’t know how she had enough money to pay the bills, because she didn’t; but it never seemed to bother her. And you wondered… sometimes I wonder why I don’t get too excited, too nervous about things and I take things as they come. I think I must’ve gotten it from my mother.
But I think that a lot of you know that my dad owned a bar and growing up around a bar is another great experience because you learn to deal with whoever walks in the door; or, as I like to say, you just never know which jackass is going to walk in that you’re going to deal with – but you do meet a lot of interesting people. And I used to watch my dad around the bar and learned probably more lessons in life than I learned from anyone. Because I don’t care who you were that walked in – you could be black or white, rich or poor, CEO to a laborer – and they all got treated the same – friendly, happy, liked what he did – and treated everybody the same way.
And it was a lesson that, you know, some 25/30 years later I began to realize that I probably learned this from my dad. But you think about growing up in a large family, thinking about growing up around a bar – great training for what we do every day – great training. During those times, you know, I played sports. I played on a lot of sports teams: football, basketball, baseball. You learn that you’ve got to work as a team because the team is like a chain – it’s only as strong as its weakest link. And then I was in my… the years I spent in my business.
I’ll never forget an older fellow named Bob Merlin – a neighbor of mine, good friend, finally a customer who’s now gone – would sit me down early in my business career and said, “Listen, Boehner, you want to do pretty good – just learn to lay all of your cards on the table and try to get the person across from you to lay all their cards on the table.” Something that I did in my business career – it seemed to work, made some money.
And certainly when I got into the political arena, I really do believe that being forthright with people, laying your cards on the table is the best way to cut to the chase, get to a decision and to be honest with people – keeping commitments. As a friend of mine used to say, “Never make empty promises.” You know like, “Eh, we have to get together some time and have lunch.” No, we’re going to have lunch or we’re not going to have lunch. When are we going to do it? But keeping your word, whether you’re in business or whether you’re in our business, it’s something that goes a long way. Bryce Harlow, who I never met, would say: “When it’s all said and done, your word is really all that you have, and your integrity is worth more than anything else in your career.”
I got into politics by accident – got involved with my neighborhood home owners association – and I ended up in the United States Congress. This, too, could happen to you. I learned that I should… that, we, in our business, should take our work seriously but not take ourselves too seriously. There are more egos in this town than you can ever imagine – you’ve all dealt with them, we might even have a few here. But we do serious work and we ought to take it seriously, but when it’s all said and done we’re just mere mortals here doing God’s work.
You know, along the way you learn a few other lessons, you know, that everything in life is a two-way street; and when you think it’s a one-way street and you’re heading in the right direction, just remember, you’re heading toward a dead-end. And so treating people right, trying to be fair with people is just a little bit of who I am and who many of us in this room are. My staff will tell you there’s all kinds of Boehnerisms. One of the famous ones is: you catch more bees with honey than you do vinegar. There’s nothing wrong with being nice to people – treating people decently.
And I was thinking about this a couple of days ago and I kept thinking about my buddy over here, Bob Michael. Now, I gave Bob Michael every reason in the world to never ever talk to me again. He was the Republican Leader back in 1991, and 2 and 3 and 4 and I was this rowdy freshman, sophomore, and bomb-thrower. And Bob Michael, in spite of all of this, I’d go talk to him about what I was doing and he’d kind of shake his head and wonder what I was up to.
And I’ll never forget one night outside the Capitol Hill Club, we were about to drop a big bomb the next day and I saw Bob Michael getting out of the car and I said, “Bob, listen, they only want to disclose a few names of these people at the House bank… I gotta be forthright with you – that’s just not going to pass the straight-face test. And Santorum and I and the rest of the gang – Nussle – we’re going to push to disclose all the names. And, sorry, but we gotta do what we gotta do.” And Bob Michael looked at me, could’ve cut my legs off, could’ve done a lot of things, but Bob Michael looked at me and said, “Well, I’m the Republican Leader and I have to represent all of the Republicans in the House and I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do.” Never tried to stop me, never tried to thwart us.
And when it comes… you know, when you say the word “decency”, Bob Michael is someone who comes to mind rather quickly – and, Bob, I’m glad that you’re here. (Applause) You know, there’s another person that reminds me of that word as well and that’s George Koch. I met George Koch the weekend after I was elected. Oxley called me right before I was elected in 1990 and says, “Listen, I can’t go to this Congressional Charity Golf Event at the Greenbrier the weekend after the election,” he said, “I’m going to Europe.” He said, “Can you take my place?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “Well, I can’t invite you until you’re elected, so I’ll call you on Wednesday.” So George Koch – gotta play by the rules – George Koch calls and invites me down to the Greenbrier. My wife and I had never been to the Greenbrier – wanted to go so we got to the Greenbrier.
And it’s the first evening and I’m having a cocktail with George Koch and he’s telling me he grew up in Cincinnati and he had been in Washington for 30-some years. And he said, “You know, I went to All Saints Episcopal High School – you know, when it was in downtown Cincinnati.” And I looked at George and I said, “George, what year did you graduate?” He said, “I graduated in 1944.”
And I looked at George Koch and I said, “George, do you remember a guy named Earl Boehner?” And George’s eyes got about this big and when we realized that my dad and George Koch went to high school together in downtown Cincinnati. Unfortunately, my dad died about three weeks later; and, so, for the last 14 years, George Koch has been kind of my surrogate father here in Washington. George, you’re a great American. (Applause.)
When it was all said and done, you know, I’m lucky. I’m a lucky guy – I’m lucky to be here, I’m lucky to have the skills that God gave me. I’m lucky to have a great family, I’m lucky to have a lot of close friends, I’m lucky to have colleagues that I work with and trust and like from the bottom of my soul; and I’m lucky to have a lot of people in this room – all of you have been very supportive of me during the time that I’ve been here. I really don’t feel like I deserve this honor, I just feel like I’m being honored for just who I happen to be. But I’m lucky because I do have a great relationship with many of you in this room.
And so I was thinking about this the other day, and I thought to myself the Bible quote that said, “To whom much is given, much is expected.” I do believe that I’m lucky; I do believe that I’ve been fortunate. I never thought in my wildest dreams that I’d ever be in public service or be on this stage tonight, but looking back over my career, I made the right decision – kind of made to do what I’m doing. And we’re all put on this earth to do more than what we think we’re put on this earth to do – we’re here to help. I’ve been fortunate to spend the last 20 years in public service, something that I’ve learned to love more than I ever thought that I would. As Saxby said, I got involved in No Child Left Behind because it was the President’s initiative. And I’ve dealt with thousands and thousands of issues during my legislative career over 20 years; but no issue – no issue – has ever touched my soul like helping every child in America have a chance at a decent education. Ted Kennedy and I do a dinner every year for 13 really poor Catholic schools here in Washington. It’s not because Ted and I love each other that much, but we do like each other – but it’s about helping kids in this city have a chance.
If you read this morning’s Washington Post editorial, you saw just another example of how pathetic the schools are in this town. And I don’t know what I’m going to do over the coming months about blowing up the D.C. school system, but I’m going to tell you one thing: we who succeed in this town and we who make a living in this town, owe these kids in this town – I’ll get there – we owe these kids in this town an education and they’re not getting it. And I’m here to say: we can’t keep looking the other way while children’s futures are being ruined day after day, being in these schools. And it’s not just here, it’s elsewhere, but we work here and we make our living here and I think that all of us in this room owe the kids in this town a chance. Thank you for the chance to be here, thank you for the wonderful honor – I love you all.
(Applause)