esrosedotblog

A PRIDE OF MENTORS

This is a fascinating article.

It basically says the Ted Kennedy was great because of the greatness of the men who he joined in his early years.

A Lion in a Senate Full of Them--Back in '63, That is

When I get into my "good old days" mode, this is what I am talking about.

Here is a list of Senators when Ted Kennedy joined the hallowed hall.

Alabama’s John Sparkman; Arizona’s Barry Goldwater and Carl Hayden; Arkansas’ J. William Fulbright; Connecticut’s Abe Ribicoff and Thomas Dodd; Georgia’s Richard Russell; Idaho’s Frank F. Church; Illinois’ Everett Dirksen; Indiana’s Birch Bayh; Louisiana’s Russell Long; Maine’s Edmund Muskie and Margaret Chase Smith; Minnesota’s Hubert Humphrey and Eugene McCarthy (and later, Walter Mondale, who filled Humphrey’s seat at the end of that Congress); Mississippi’s John Stennis; Montana’s Michael J. Mansfield; Nebraska’s Roman Hruska; New York’s Jacob Javits; North Carolina’s Sam Ervin; Rhode Island’s Claiborne Pell; South Carolina’s Strom Thurmond; South Dakota’s George McGovern; Tennessee’s Al Gore Sr. and Estes Kefauver; Texas’ Ralph Yarborough and John Tower; Virginia’s Harry Byrd; Washington’s Scoop Jackson; West Virginia’s Robert Byrd; and Wisconsin’s William Proxmire.

Now, you may be too young to know some of these names but I am not. As I read the list almost all of these men's faces come to mind. Some with sound and motion. Goldwater. Hayden, Fulbright, Ribicoff, Dodd the elder, Russell, Church. Hell, the whole passel of them. It is easier to mention the few that I can't picture and "hear". Hruska. Pell. Gore Sr.

There is no equivalent today. First, I can't visualize but half of the Senators or put a story to them. Another quarter are mostly the noisy ones you don't want to hear from again. Maybe 25% of the bunch are reasonable facsimiles of the men in the '63 Senate.

This is the official photo from 1963.

Labels: America