“ "If one of the parties is shameless, the other party cannot afford to be spineless.”

—Senator Frank Lautenberg, who died today at 89, the last man in the Senate to have served in WWII.

He was an environmental advocate, an enemy of the tobacco and alcohol industries, one of the last of the old guard who knew how to get things done.

When a sitting senator dies, they drape his desk on the Senate floor in black, and adorn it with flowers  It’s not a sight you ever forget, a stark and powerful tribute to a voice fallen silent.

Rest in Peace.