Goss, Priest Among Those Honored by House

May 10, 2006 — -- It was described as a diverse group -- a priest, a former ambassador, the director of an intelligence agency and a vice president. The one thing they shared was their former service in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In a ceremony just a few feet away from the chamber where they all once served, the House honored four of its former members with the Distinguished Service Award.

Selected to receive the award by the Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., were Vice President Dick Cheney and outgoing CIA Director Porter Goss. They were joined by former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican Lindy Boggs and Father Robert Drinan, both chosen by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Goss, who represented a Florida district in the House from 1989 to 2004, made a surprise announcement last week that he was leaving the CIA in the next few weeks. He took the occasion of the Capitol awards ceremony to praise the agency he was departing.

"The men and women of the CIA are extraordinarily talented," Goss said. "They are doing amazing work for our country and its well-being, and our citizens at home and abroad."

Lindy Boggs, who served in the House from Louisiana from 1973 to 1991, took the opportunity in accepting her award to ask Congress for more help for her hurricane-ravaged state and the city of New Orleans, where she still resides on Bourbon Street.

"We need your continued help and support in rebuilding our levees, our economy and community, and in healing our families," she said.

Father Robert Drinan, a Jesuit Catholic priest, was a member of Congress from Massachusetts from 1971 to 1981. A vocal opponent of the Vietnam War, he was so upset by the Watergate scandal that he was the first member of Congress to introduce a resolution calling for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.

In accepting the award, Drinan said, "There is seldom any honor that is more appreciated than a tribute from one's former colleagues."

Cheney, who represented Wyoming from 1979 to 1989, said he still thinks of the House as his political home.