"He lived on the solution side of life"

(From the memorial service for Lloyd Bentsen in Houston yesterday, courtesy Houston Chronicle. Clockwise from about 7 o'clock: John Kerry, Chris Bell, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, John Cornyn.)

"At the tender age of 71, a time when he could have with honor and grace and total good faith, walked into a richly deserved private life, he agreed to become Treasury secretary at one of the most challenging times for our country economically in modern history ... He was instrumental in passing our plan to expand our trade relations with Mexico -- still a controversial issue, but I ask you to think how much more complex and difficult this immigration debate would be today if we had failed then to be a good neighbor."

-- former President Clinton

"For I believe history will judge this man as a man of solutions. He lived life differently than most of us. It's been said many times that life is 10 percent what happens and 90 percent how you react to it. From my chair, I've seen far too many people who react by moaning about problems, looking down, decrying the world and the situation we have. Not Lloyd Bentsen. He lived on what I call the solution side of life, always looking for an answer, always looking for some hope."

-- Pastor William Vanderbloemen of First Presbyterian Church, which the Bentsens attended