“He just had something to say and went down and said it.”

Arenberg describes how Senator Paul Tsongas' unconventional maiden Senate speech upset his senior colleague from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy.

ARENBERG: I remember his maiden speech. Particularly back then, it was considered a big event to make your maiden speech on the floor. Well, I was with Paul in his office one day. He hadn’t been in the Senate very long, maybe a couple of weeks. I have to say by way of back story, he was the first Peace Corps volunteer elected to the Senate. He had been in Ethiopia and then had been a trainer in the West Indies. He was very proud of the fact that he was the only member of the Senate to have lived in Africa, and he felt he knew a lot about Africa. We were in his office, and it was before the Senate was televised so we were listening over the squawk box in the background, as we always did. I always tell people that in those days to be a good staffer you had to know all 100 voices, otherwise you wouldn’t know what was going on. Anyway, somebody was making a speech about something and referred to Ethiopia or Somalia. He perked up and said, “I don’t agree with that. Come on.” He drags me over to the floor. He stands up and gets recognition and he starts talking! Well, about five minutes into this address, all of a sudden you hear this bang as those twin swinging doors of the center aisle fly open and puffing down the aisle comes Ted Kennedy, at a trot. Because, as you know better than I, it was the tradition for the senior senator to introduce his junior colleague on the floor when he was about to make his maiden speech. Here was Tsongas making his maiden speech without any forewarning. Never mind to Ted Kennedy, without any forewarning to his staff or his speechwriter or anybody else. He just had something to say and went down and said it.