AVIARY TRANSCRIPTION

Iowa State Library event, welcome from Senator Tom Harkin

https://iastate.aviaryplatform.com/r/k35m903q0v
Media File: MS0274_Harkin_welcome
Transcription File: MS0274_Harkin_Welcome.vtt
Description: 
Plain Text Exported From Aviary: 2024-09-03T16:59:27


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Hello, I'm Senator Tom Harkin, and I appreciate

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this opportunity to join with you, at least by

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video in saluting former Congressman Ed Mezvinsky

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for the gift of his official papers to the Iowa

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State University Library. Now, folks of a certain

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age in Ames, Iowa, remember Ed Muskie as the

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golden boy and all state football player, a member

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of the Ames High School State Championship,

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basketball and track teams of nineteen fifty five.

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But Ed went on to even bigger things. Obviously,

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many of the paper's Ed is donating to Iesu pertain

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to his work during his first term in Congress as

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the most junior member of the House Judiciary

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Committee, which, as we know, voted to impeach

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President Nixon. On a personal note, I remember Ed

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is a kind of role model for how to get elected to

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Congress. You see, Ed ran in 1970 and failed in

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his first campaign for the US House in 1970. But

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he was persistent, worked hard, and then he won in

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1972. And he did so by mobilizing an insurgent

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student led campaign, drawing heavily from young

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people at the University of Iowa. So likewise, I

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failed in my first race for Congress in 1972, but

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I was persistent, worked hard and won two years

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later, largely thanks to an insurgent student led

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campaign drawing heavily from young people at Iowa

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State. Of course, Ed and I each had a Watergate

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connection. As I mentioned, Ed was a member of the

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committee that approved three articles of

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impeachment in July of 1974, and I was a, quote,

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Watergate baby, one of the fifty three Democrats

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elected to Congress for the first time in November

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of nineteen seventy four, largely as a result of

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the Watergate scandal. Now, Ed's papers will

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obviously be of great interest to historians of

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the Watergate area and era and its aftermath. It's

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a significant act of public service for Ed to

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donate them to Iowa State. So thank you, Ed, for

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your service in Congress to the people of Iowa.

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And I congratulate Iowa State on this important

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acquisition.

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