New Hampshire Congressman Charlie Bass didn't serve with him, but looked up to Rudman, who died Monday.

"He'd say, 'Vote the tough way,' and he'd say, 'Don't let people push you around,'" Bass recalled. "'If you know what's right, vote the way that's right, and if you're forceful and persuasive and sure of yourself, people will support you even if they don't agree with you.'"

Rudman, who co-authored a ground-breaking budget balancing law, championed ethics and led a commission that predicted the danger of terrorist attacks years before 9/11, died just before midnight Monday at a Washington, D.C., hospital from complications of lymphoma, said Bob Stevenson, a longtime friend and spokesman.

Stevenson acknowledged Rudman could be abrupt, but his peers respected him because he did his homework and was true to his word.

"He was a bulldog in the Senate. He set the standard for independence," he said.

The feisty New Hampshire Republican went to the Senate in 1981 with a reputation as a tough prosecutor, and was called on by Senate leaders and presidents of both parties to tackle tough assignments.

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