{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/media-center/latest-headlines/levin-says-farewell-to-senate", "Levin says farewell to Senate", "2014-12-12", "2014", "2014-12", "Democrat", "House", "MO", "Claire McCaskill", "M001170", "www.mccaskill.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Levin says farewell to Senate \r\n                \r\n            \r\n            \r\n                Friday, December 12, 2014\r\n            \r\n            \n\t\n\r\n            \r\n            \r\n                  \r\n                    By:\u00a0\r\n                    Todd Spangler\r\n                \r\n            \r\n            \r\n                \r\n                \r\n                \r\n            WASHINGTON \u2013\u00a0In speech after speech this morning, U.S. senators stood to praise the 36-year career of Michigan\u2019s Carl Levin, referring to him as a \u201csenator\u2019s senator\u201d who taught many of them how a legislator should act and cheering a bipartisan approach many said should be a model for the chamber.\r\n\u201cI will think of Carl Levin fondly one way: his shoulders slightly stooped, his hand grasping a piece of paper, him walking quickly toward me with his head down, peering over his ubiquitous glasses saying, \u201cClaire, have you read the language?\u201d said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., becoming emotional as she recounted her time with Levin on the Senate Armed Services Committee.\r\n\u201cHe understands the hazards of a misplaced comma. He understsands the danger of using an \u2018and\u2019 insteadf of an \u2018or,\u2019\u201d said McCaskill. \u201cHe understands that is the essence of our work \u2014 that we craft language that lives up to our purpose and ideas.\u201d\r\nIt was just one of a series of remembrances for Levin, a Democratic former Detroit City Council president first elected to represent Michigan in 1978. Retiring after six 6-year terms, Levin, 80, delivered his farewell speech from the floor, urging colleagues to reject soundbite politics and \u2014 as he has done in the past \u2014 encouraging both parties to protect the political minority in the chamber.\r\nCalling minority protections \u201cthe singular hallmark\u201d of the Senate, he urged the chamber to turn back a precedent set by the Democratic majority he is part of last year to hamper minority filibusters on presidential nominations, saying it violated the Senate\u2019s set process for changing the rules.\r\n\u201cProtections of the minority make the Senate more than just a place to slow things down,\u201d he cautioned. \u201cThose protections make it a place where we work things out. It is those protections which produce compromise.\u201d\r\nFor Levin\u2019s colleagues \u2014 including many of the who supported that change \u2014 it was yet another reminder of the Michigan Democrat\u2019s standing in the Senate and as chairman of the Armed Services Committee and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which has continued to churn out bipartisan products despite a hyperpartisan atmosphere.\r\nSen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., called him the \u201cbest lawyer in the entire Senate,\u201d saying when Levin \u201cgives you his word, that\u2019s it. You don\u2019t worry.\u201d Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and a member of the Armed Services Committee, called Levin \u201ca remarkable leader\u201d who runs perhaps \u201cthe best run committee\u201d in the Senate or House.\r\n\u201cWhy can\u2019t the rest of the Senate work the way the Armed Services Committee works?\u201d asked Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WV, and a junior member of the committee. \u201cThe reason is because we don\u2019t have enough Carl Levins.\u201d\r\nSen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, said simply that if someone was asked what the headline of today\u2019s proceedings was it would be, \u201cMr. Integrity retires from the Senate.\u201d\r\nIt seemed even to get to always composed Levin, reacting after the speeches and, earlier, with his voice cracking as he concluded his own farewell address and noticed his older brother, U.S. Rep. Sandy Levin, D-Royal Oak, sitting in the chamber nearby and his family sitting in the gallery.\r\nLevin is Michigan\u2019s longest-serving U.S. senator ever but his accomplishments far outdistance his longevity. While remaining a staunch liberal, he has been an indefatigable supporter of the state\u2019s dominant auto industry and charted a reputation for bipartisanship in producing annual defense authorizations and running investigations into corporate wrongdoing.\r\nNot only has he fought successfully against Pentagon overspending through the years, he has been part of congressional inquiries into the causes of the 2008 financial crisis, abusive credit card practices, the Enron scandal, offshore tax havens and more. Just this week, his work in trying to get to the bottom of treatment of detainees after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was noted in an Intelligence Committee report criticizing harsh interrogation techniques used by the CIA.\r\nLevin, in a farewell speech that saw him praise his staff, said he and wife Barbara will stay in Michigan. He said congressional gridlock created by partisan politics was not part of his decision to retire and he departs with \u201cunabashed confidence\u201d in the Senate\u2019s ability to persevere.\r\nSaying he hoped the next Congress would attack the \u201cgrowing gap in our society between a fortunate few and the vast majority of Americans whose fortunes have stagnated or fallen,\u201d he called for improvements to education, worker training and research which should be paid for \u201cby closing egregious tax loopholes that serve no economic purpose.\u201d\r\nHe decried the soundbite journalism practiced off the floor of the Senate, saying it only seems to exacerbate polarization in Washington. Comments uttered offhand to a reporter in a hallway, he said, \u201clead too often to less thoughtful discourse and that has helped drive rhetorical wedges between us.\u201d\r\nBut he reserved his strongest comments for the Democratic majority\u2019s use of the so-called nuclear option last year which broke the filibuster on presidential nominations. While Levin said there is no question any president regardless of party should be able to get their nominations confirmed, bypassing the regular process for changing the rules damages the nation and should be overturned..\r\n\u201cThat precedent will not serve the country well in the future. It leaves the minority with no protection, diminishing the unique role of the Senate,\u201d he said, hoping it will be changed next year.\r\nSeveral senators stepped forward to hug Levin as he concluded his speech, including Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who will become Michigan\u2019s senior senator with Levin\u2019s departure. She noted he \u201coutlasted disco and the Soviet Union\u201d and said Levin\u2019s \u201cheart is in Detroit, where he was born and raised\u201d and still lives.\r\n\u201cEverywhere you look,\u201d she said, \u201cyou see evidence of Sen. Carl Levin\u2019s hard work\u201d from the riverfront in Detroit and funding for the M-1 Rail along Woodward Avenue to coastal and maritime preserves along the Great Lakes. \u201cYou have given so much and we are grateful,\u201d she said.\r\nSeveral other senators spoke, Republican and Democrat alike. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont called him \u201cperhaps the greatest intellect\u201d in the Senate. Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland noted Levin was such a stickler for detail he sometimes sent him notes correcting typographical errors in his bill drafts.\r\nIowa Sen. Tom Harkin, who is also retiring, recounted their long friendship and hoped they could remain close friends despite \u201call the times the (University of Iowa) Hawkeys beat the Wolverines in the future.\u201d\r\nIt was McCaskill\u2019s speech, however, which set the emotional tone for the morning, coming from a tough-as-nails former prosecutor who serves with Levin on Armed Services.\r\n\u201cThis is a senator\u2019s senator. There are no sharp elbows. There is no harsh rhetoric. ... Carl is methodically doing the grind it out work of the Senate. ... He has taught me more than I can ever say. And we will try to live up to the ideal he has set for all of us.\u201d\r\n            \r\n             \r\n            \r\n            \n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t  \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/media-center/latest-headlines/levin-says-farewell-to-senate"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5708410646766424, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}