WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Reflecting on the chamber's heavily partisan climate, Senate Majority Leader Bill First urged his colleagues to transcend party politics in his farewell speech on the Senate Floor Thursday.

"I urge that we also consider what our work in this Chamber is really all about," the Tennessee Republican said. "Is it about keeping the Majority? Is it about Red States versus Blue States? Is it about lobbing attacks across the aisle? Is it about war rooms whose purpose is not to contrast ideas but to destroy? Or is it more?"

Frist, who pledged only to serve two Senate terms when he was elected in 1994, also urged his colleagues to follow his own self-imposed term limit.

"Today, self-imposed term limits are the extreme exception -- not the practice in this city," Frist said. "As a consequence, we are moving toward a body with a two-year vision, governing for the next election -- rather than a body with a 20-year vision, governing for the future."