despite the sarraute around today s gathering there is much to celebrate. his bravery. not just facing his illness but courage of words and the thought. he did not mind to land outside it will parole wisdom with his curious pro four stations before the invasion of iraq. and his inclusive sense of humor that held up under the most liquid of late night traditions. we will recognize his wife and his three children. we have speakers who were blessed to know him in friendship and in his work. to aspects of his life he was a master. the first, james benton. [applause] what would the dead want from us watching from their cave? howling? rave or disfigure ourselves like an extemporaneous slave? none of my a dead friends were at emperors with such taste. or vengeful to have their friends waste away to be disfigured and defaced. dead-end would want us to weep for what we have lost. time would find them generous convalesce self engrossed. time the fines than generous as they used to
today i m pleased to announce that i ve recommended to the president that he nominate general james mattis as the next commander of u.s. central command. general mattis, who currently heads joint forces command, is one of our military s outstanding combat leaders and strategic thinkers, bringing an essential mix of experience, judgment and perspective to this important post. he has served and commanded at all levels and has held a number of key leadership positions in the centcom area of responsibility, including battalion command in the first gulf war, leading the first conventional ground forces inserted into afghanistan, commanding the 1st marine division during the initial combat and stability phases of the iraq war, and command of all marine corps forces in central command. whether commanding troops in battle, leading the marine corps combat development command, or developing new operational operating concepts at jfcom, general mattis has proven to be one of the milit
be done with only demratic votes in the house. it is going to require some significant republican support. not just a token republican support, but significant republicanupport support. and that is good to be a challenge for the rest of the year and into 2011. the democrats have released th blueprint. it has been out there for a whil so far, unfortunately, we have not had any interest from any republican offices coin forward, at least not overtly. going forward, at least not overtly. absentomething changing over the next few weeks and getting some bipartisan effort on this, there will be little movement on this. at this point we are looking toward the elections in 2011 to see if something will be moved forward. we do not know how things are going to continue to play out, for example, in arizona. arizona is a somewhat volatile environment. there is passion on both sides of this ll that has been passed. there is the border of their and the narrative that the border out th