From a 2004 pre-election piece by Alexander Cockburn (New Left Review v. 29 [sub req]):
Congress is an infinitely drearier, more conformist place than it was two or three decades ago. Vivid souls like Wright Patman and Henry Gonzalez of Texas, in whose hearts the coals of populist insurgency still glowed, are long gone, along with men like Gruening, Morse and Harold Hughes of Iowa. Hughes, a former truck driver and reformed alcoholic, was a tremendous fellow, who in 1976 explained to a tv interviewer who had asked him if he was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination: ‘When I tell you that if, as president, I was informed that the Soviets had launched a surprise nuclear attack and its missiles were speeding towards our shores, I would order No Response, you will understand that I am not a candidate for the nomination’. Probably the most independent soul in the current House is Ron Paul, the libertarian Republican from Texas.
Chris | 05-Aug-07 at 11:52 am | Permalink
Myths of Decline are always good if you’re trying to shame the scoundrels of the present. But they usually seem to me like unwishful thinking. Lots of things are worse today, I’m sure, but I’ll bet the Congresses of yesteryear were pretty drab, conformist, stuffy places too. And there are moments of redemption now today too, aren’t there?
Paul | 05-Aug-07 at 12:09 pm | Permalink
Yes, yes. But that wasn’t really the part I was highlighting. It was the nukes, and the Ron Paul bit. Y’see??
Chris | 05-Aug-07 at 12:27 pm | Permalink
Oh.
In good news, didn’t Congress just get its first atheist ever?
Paul | 05-Aug-07 at 12:39 pm | Permalink
Yippieeeeeeee!!
DC | 05-Aug-07 at 7:07 pm | Permalink
Who’s that? Is it Bernie Sanders, the Vermont socialist? I heard this congress has the first Muslim and Buddhist as well. I know the Muslim (Keith something I believe), am I right about the Buddhist I wonder?
Chris | 06-Aug-07 at 8:26 am | Permalink
I must be thinking of this guy.