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Streetcar Line
Dave Treen, Political Builder
Requiescat in pace. And in joy.
David Conner Treen was a one-term governor (and four-term congressman) of a troubled southern state. He lost or withdrew from far more elections than he won. His nomination for a federal appeals court judgeship fell apart. And he was the butt of two of the most famous put-downs in American political history. Yet, although almost no history books will say so, he was one of the more consequential figures in late 20th century politics, not just in Louisiana, but nationally.
Dave Treen died yesterday at 81, and national conservatives should pay respects.
Treen was no saint. He had a temper, and sometimes a problematic self-absorption (leavened by a genuine humility), and an incredibly maddening, Hamlet-like indecisiveness on policy minutia and political strategy. But by the political standards of Louisiana, Treen was the touchstone of all that was good and decent, earnest and principled. And he was the very model of admirably dogged persistence for a worthy cause.
Treen played a huge role in breaking the Democratic Party’s monopoly on the South. He played an important role in organizing U.S. House Republicans toward a conservative, reformist model in the late 1970s to help lay the groundwork for the Reagan presidency. He planted the seeds of reform in Louisiana government. He served as the single most important mentor for U.S. Rep. Bob Livingston, the most successful cost-cutting Appropriations Chairman ($50 billion of real dollars cut from domestic discretionary spending in just two years) in American history. And he swallowed his pride and 20 years of frustration when his state needed him the most, in order to provide the single most significant turning point in the effort to stop neo-Nazi David Duke from becoming governor.
His story really is remarkable.
When Dave Treen first ran for Congress as a Republican in 1962 against the powerful Democrat Hale Boggs, there were only some 10,000 registered Republicans in the whole state of Louisiana. And Treen was hardly rolling in dough either personally or politically, with a sparsely furnished house and only about $11,000 in total campaign contributions. But he polled a surprisingly strong 32.8 percent of the vote, and ran again in 1964. That time, he earned 45 percent — again against Boggs, a veritable Louisiana and Washington institution. Four years later, he tried yet again — and this time came so close (officially 48.8 percent of the race) that some of his backers said he lost due only to vote fraud in the New Orleans inner city.
It was during that race that he attended the Republican national convention that was choosing between Richard Nixon and the exceedingly late-starting Ronald Reagan. Everybody knew that Treen was in line for a federal judgeship if he lost his congressional race while Nixon won the presidency — but Treen, a conservative, couldn’t decide between Nixon and Reagan. A Nixon henchman found Treen on the convention floor and told him that if he supported Reagan, his hopes for a judgeship — or for help with his congressional campaign — were over. It was a raw political threat — and it backfired.
A witness said Treen looked like he was about to hit the guy. Nobody bought off Dave Treen: He announced his support for Reagan instead, carrying several other delegates with him. Sure enough, the victorious Nixon never did name Treen to a judgeship.
Three years after Treen’s excruciatingly close loss to Boggs in 1968, Republicans needed a candidate for governor. Treen was a three-time loser in just one district of the state, and had never won an election to any public office — but he was talked into running. In the general election against the flamboyant Edwin Edwards, Treen earned a stunning 42.8 percent of the vote — still a landslide loss, but 5 points better than any Louisiana Republican statewide since Reconstruction. Piece by piece, painful loss after painful loss, Dave Treen was serving as the sacrificial lamb in elections aimed at building a Republican Party where no effective one existed.
After frightened Democrats changed congressional district lines for the 1972 elections in order to move Treen’s house out of Boggs’ district, Treen ran yet again for Congress, this time for an open seat. He won, joining Trent Lott of Mississippi (elected that same year) in opening the Deep South for the first time ever to conservative Republicans running for federal office. And Treen didn’t waste his time. He sponsored successful efforts to raise the exemption for the estate tax, to promote domestic energy exploration, and to block several efforts that would have expanded government support for abortion. And just three terms into office, he became chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, helping (among other things) marshal support for Jack Kemp’s revolutionary supply-side tax cuts.
In Louisiana, governors are limited to no more than two consecutive terms (although they can come back later after a term out of office), so the wildly popular but corrupt Edwards had to sit out a term. In a six-way race in 1979, Treen led in the state’s “jungle primary,” and held off progressive Democrat Louis Lambert in the general election by just 9,000 votes. He was the first GOP governor in the Deep South since Reconstruction.
Republican registration tripled (this is from memory) from the low hundred-thousands to the high 300-thousands — but Treen never won another race. His administration achieved a number of small but important reforms (which were admirable but not of much interest outside Louisiana), but Edwards still pulled all the strings in the state legislature, leaving Treen sometimes looking rather hapless. Everybody knew Edwards was itching for a comeback. It was in that comeback race in 1983 that the Cajun emitted the two famous put-downs. Edwards said that the only way he could lose to Treen was to be “caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy.” And he said the highly deliberative Treen “takes an hour and a half to watch 60 Minutes.” Hundreds of similar quips left their mark as well, as did an oil-patch downturn in the early 1980s. Edwards won with a whopping 62.4 percent of the vote, and spent the next eight years (four in office, four out of power) still taking shot after shot at Treen, out of sheer spite.
Treen, for his part, kept working to build the Republican Party. But disaster struck — and here is where Dave Treen perhaps stood tallest of all. The disaster came in the form of former KKK leader David Duke, who won election to the state legislature in Treen’s backyard, against Treen’s brother John. Duke used a preternatural ability to manipulate the media as his calling card in running a strong U.S. Senate race in 1990 and then beat two other Republicans to force a general election runoff with an again-returning Edwards in the 1991 race for governor. All during the three years of Duke’s ascendancy, Treen repeatedly worked in public and private to block Duke from taking over the state Republican Party. And then, in the runoff, with Duke claiming to be a Republican fighting against Treen’s nemesis of 20 years, Duke pulled within the margin of error in the most respected poll in the state.
That’s when Treen, still widely admired for his rectitude and judgment even among those who thought he was too boring to be governor, stepped in. In an absolutely remarkable and riveting press conference, he laid into the neo-Nazi.
“This election presents to the people of Louisiana a CLEAR, MORAL CRISIS,” Treen said, emphasizing the words. “Neutrality is no answer. As governor, David Duke would damage this state for decades to come.”
About the Author
Quin Hillyer is a senior editor of The American Spectator and a senior fellow at the Center for Individual Freedom. Follow him on Twitter @QuinHillyer.
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Pingback| 10.30.09 @ 6:52AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : Dave Treen, Political Builder [spect links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Ryan| 10.30.09 @ 8:22AM
Fellow Louisianian "outmigrant" here (the word is really funny to Louisianians for bizarre reasons).
Treen's political career was the best and worst of Louisiana politics. In Maginnis's The Last Hayride, he points out that Treen was actually set up to WIN by Edwards because Edwards didn't want another Democrat to get any power and continue on as governor (who was term-limited at the time - LA govs can only serve two consecutive terms and they have to sit out one election). What it DID do, which EWE didn't anticipate, was give rise to the Republican party in Louisiana.
You forgot the name that we gave to the Duke/Edwards travesty election - "The Election from Hell."
People may be wondering if Louisianians were really that racist or that stupid, but they forget that, at the time, Duke was THAT good at hiding his racist spots. Edwards really was the lesser of two evils (and yes, that really wasn't saying much).
Alan Brooks| 10.30.09 @ 7:48PM
Heaven had better exist-- otherwise where would those such as David Treen go to after the mortal coil is fini?
Paul D| 10.30.09 @ 9:18AM
When Dave Treen was elected Governor, I was a senior at Tulane University. Treen was a graduate of both Tulane's undergraduate program and Tulane Law. He was also an alum of our local chapter of my fraternity, Kappa Sigma.
On sort of a lark, me and my Frat brothers invited Treen to visit his old stomping grounds. To our shock, he accepted immediately. We then had to scramble to send out invitations to local alumni and were of course, suitably impressed by the distinguished guests who showed up for his visit.
I always wondered what the local residents on Broadway street thought of the Governor's limo parked in front of our shabby little Frat house. It's was obvious that Treen certainly didn't care what kind of impression he was making and I think now it just demonstrates another aspect of his graciousness.
Thanks for the great obituary.
Alex D | 11.2.09 @ 1:55PM
Thank you, Paul, for helping me remember that wonderful dinner event with Dave Treen at the Kappa Sigma house on Broadway Street. I was also a "frat brother" in attendance at that dinner. I believe that I was in my 3rd year at Tulane (undergraduate) at that time.
After having the pleasure of briefly speaking with Dave Treen, I was convinced that I should join the Republican Party. I don't remember what he said, however, in over 30 years of voting, I have never voted for a Democrat.
And, thank you Quin, for a wonderful article on Dave Treen. He will be missed.
Rob| 10.30.09 @ 2:17PM
Wow, what a tremendous contribution he made to both Louisiana and the nation. A fine testimony to a man who did a great deal of good. Peace be with him.
shoey| 10.30.09 @ 3:07PM
never heard of him before, i'm glad for the schooling, i have some reading to do.
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.30.09 @ 10:30PM
Every timje I cross the Lake Charles bridge...I see the hundreds of six-gun castings. Perfect example of LA politics.
I hope he wasn't in on that boondoggle.
Jacob Sulzbach | 10.31.09 @ 1:53AM
Quin, you have done so much for those of us on the right side of history here in Louisiana recently, that you really deserve some props. First Beth Rickey and now Dave Treen.
I published a special post linking to this article at Blogging Louisiana at:
http://blogginglouisiana.blogs.....treen.html
And yesterday I followed it up with my own remembrance of Dave Treen at:
http://blogginglouisiana.blogs.....itics.html
It was a pleasure to meet you at Beth Rickey's funeral Quin, even if only briefly. Please feel free to contact me if you ever feel you need help publicizing something important. You've got credit in the bank now.
Jacob Sulzbach
Blogging Louisiana
Alan Brooks| 10.31.09 @ 1:35PM
"Duke was THAT good at hiding his racist spots."
Duke doesn't really dislike blacks, it is worse. IMO, reality is always worse that our perceived image of it.
Does a spider dislike a fly? No.
The spider loves the fly, it loves the taste of the fly's blood.
That is general as to all life.
Rich Rostrom| 11.1.09 @ 12:17PM
"the first GOP governor in the Deep South since Reconstruction..."
This claim is sort of true and sort of not true. Treen was elected in 1979. Before that, Republican Claude Kirk was elected in Forida in 1966, Winthrop Rockefeller in Arkansas in 1966, James Edwards in South Carolina in 1974, and Bill Clements in Texas in 1978.
Florida, South Carolina, and Texas were certainly Deep South states at the time of the Civil War; and if Florida and Texas ceased to be "Deep Southern" by the 1960s, Arkansas effectively became such later.
This should not take away from David Treen's splendid work in establishing the Republican Party in a state where it had been extinct for 42 years. (From 1916 through 1956, there was not even a token Republican candidate for governor, and in 13 of 21 election years no Republican ran for Congress.)
However, Treen is wrong to call for Edwards' release because Treen has forgiven him. Treen can forgive Edwards' personal abuse of him, but Edwards not is in prison for that. He is in prison for crimes against the public welfare, and Treen does not have standing to forgive those wrongs.
Jacob Sulzbach | 11.1.09 @ 2:47PM
Reply to Rich Rostrum ...
Rich;
Your factual information on the candidacies of Republicans for southern governorships is most welcome--thank you for that.
And with respect to your final comment about Edwards' "crimes against the public welfare"--I cannot argue that either. But as a Louisianian who fought "all things Edwards" for decades, for which I endured no small amount of anguish at the hands of his organization (including violence), I will disagree with your comment about Treen's forgiveness of Edwards and his recommendation of a pardon for him.
Treen's real success is that he led the way for Louisiana in the creation of a new political culture which rejected Edwards and all he stood for in the public eye--as well as the myths Edwards embodied, much in the tradition of Huey Long. Even Mary Landrieu has called down Louisiana Democrats for their ties to Edwards on occasion. If you have lived Louisiana politics as I have, you would know the significance of this accomplishment. It is huge.
Treen's request of a pardon for Edwards represented a desire on Treen's part to build a consensus in Louisiana for facing some of the toughest problems we must deal with as a legacy of years of corruption and "mythical" politics (if I may use the term). It deals with our tax structure, the harmful effects of casino gambling, damaging workmen's compensation laws written by organized labor, the popular myth of maintaining a high homestead exemption (lowering property taxes on homeowners) so that "the wealthy will pay their fair share," which has done so much damage to the costs of doing business here, and more.
What was really behind Treen's call for a pardon for Edwards was a desire to get the ear of Edwards' former supporters and allies to "fix things." At bottom, it was an attempt on Treen's part to make the political peace in Louisiana so that a true consensus for reform could emerge. We have taken some small steps towards building that consensus as a consequence of Treen's forgiveness alone.
The one trait which can be seen as evident in all Dave Treen's conduct is the placement of the interests of Louisianians above all else, no matter how hard it may have been to do so.
P.S. -- I lose no sleep over Edwin Edwards rotting in jail.
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My Dad, RIP | America Watches Obama links to this page. Here’s an excerpt: