The American Spectator : Hubert Humphrey's Centennial

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Hubert Humphrey’s Centennial

By Mark Tooley on 8.26.11 @ 6:09AM

He shared his birth year with another idealistic, small town Midwesterner similarly renowned for charm and optimism.

This year is the centennial of Hubert Humphrey’s birth. Not many Americans under 40, or even 50, remember him. He died of cancer in 1978, while still a senator, with characteristic joyful aplomb, and with the world sympathetically watching. Like Adlai Stevenson, or William Jennings Bryan, he was a liberal hero, a frequent presidential candidate, an orator and idealist admired by millions but whom destiny and tragedy blocked from higher office.

Humphrey shared his birth year with another idealistic, small town Midwesterner similarly renowned for charm and optimism, whose star was providentially rising, even in old age, just as Humphrey’s was setting. Ronald Reagan and Humphrey were in fact good friends of many decades, starting in the 1940s, when both were active in Americans for Democratic Action and other liberal (and anti-communist) causes. Revealingly for both of them, they remained friends even after Reagan turned right starting in the 1950s. Humphrey even visited Reagan while he was governor. They almost could have run against each other, had Reagan snatched the Republican nomination from Richard Nixon in 1968, or if both had grabbed their respective parties’ nominations in 1976. In both cases, the eventual presidential winners were less winsome personalities.

Both Reagan and Humphrey were shaped by the Great Depression and were ardent devotees of Franklin Roosevelt. Of course, Humphrey, as Lyndon Johnson’s vice president, enthusiastically boosted the Great Society as the logical next step. Reagan established his political career on passionate opposition to the Great Society, famously winning conservative hearts with his 1964 “Time for Choosing” television broadcast for Barry Goldwater.

Humphrey and Reagan were also both raised and molded by small town Protestant religiosity endowing them both with a lifelong reforming, crusading, and confident spirit. Their churches still echoed 19th revivalism while also embracing early 20th century Social Gospel progressivism, especially in Humphrey’s case. Reagan, thanks to his devout mother, grew up in the Disciples of Christ, professed faith as a boy and received baptism, taught Sunday school, and attended a denominational college. In later decades, he was not an ardent churchman but retained his faith, and became a Presbyterian, even as elites of his denomination loathed his policies. Reagan, of course, relied on political support from conservative evangelicals of the emerging Religious Right. But most Mainline Protestants, ignoring their prelates, also voted for him.

His small town lacking a Lutheran church, to which his devout mother adhered, Humphrey attended a Methodist Church as a boy. Only 3 years before his birth, northern Methodism had crafted the “Social Creed,” a succinct Social Gospel appeal mostly focused on labor rights. By the 1920s, when Humphrey was a youth, progressive Methodism in the upper Midwest was in full swing. In 1932, groaning under the Depression, northern Methodism officially renounced the “profit motive,” i.e. capitalism. Thanks to sensible Methodist businessmen, the denomination in 1936 stepped back from this virtual embrace of socialism. Through his later decades, Humphrey would attend Methodist and United Church of Christ congregations. He was himself a virtual icon of liberal Protestant activism, never losing faith in government’s supposed power to heal every social ill. Methodism’s Council of Bishops met Humphrey in 1959, among other senators, and preferred him over a young JFK. The crest of Humphrey’s career was his fight in the U.S. Senate for the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Overthrowing segregation in the 1960s was likewise the political summit of liberal Protestantism, after which its institutions sank into less noble and far-left causes, fueling the loss of millions of members.

Official Mainline Protestantism, like much of liberalism, was radicalized by the Vietnam War. That war of course estranged Humphrey from much of his liberal support base. As Johnson’s Vice President, he initially strove to support military victory against Vietnamese communism, while also helping enact LBJ’s massive social welfare programs and other sweepingly transformative social changes. By 1968, he was carefully airing his doubts about the war, enraging Johnson, but still not mollifying the anti-war Left, which infamously disrupted Humphrey’s nomination at the riotous 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

A recently aired PBS documentary called “Hubert H. Humphrey: The Art of the Possible” was mostly an ode to a liberal hero. Its only criticism predictably focused on his loyal support for LBJ’s war. Interviewees like Walter Mondale, a fellow Minnesota senator and eventual U.S. Vice President, praise Humphrey while lamenting how the war robbed him of the presidency. Mondale even accuses Richard Nixon, or at least his campaign, of treason for reputedly urging South Vietnam to reject LBJ’s last minute peace initiative to swing the presidential election for Humphrey. Seemingly Mondale was not equally distressed by LBJ’s altering a war to affect an election.

The film engagingly chronicles Humphrey’s modest youth, including his Methodist Social Gospel influence, his meteoric political ascendancy as Minneapolis Mayor, electrifying Civil Rights crusader at the 1948 Democratic Convention, U.S. Senator and Vice President. Humphrey predictably rebounded from his narrow 1968 presidential loss to return to the U.S. Senate, dabbling with presidential runs in 1972 and 1976. His terminal illness, which aged him about two decades within months, solidified his image as a joyful warrior. He reached out to friends and foes during his final days, including a still reclusive and disgraced former President Richard Nixon. Humphrey invited Nixon to his own state funeral, held in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, and where Nixon in 1978 made his first major state appearance after his 1974 Watergate resignation. The documentary closes by scrolling through the dozens of legislative enactments of larger government that Humphrey successfully championed. Were these programs actually successful? Nobody interviewed bothers to ask.

PBS probably would not air a similar laudatory ode to another failed presidential candidate of that era, Barry Goldwater. The “American Experience” PBS documentary about Reagan aired in the 1990s was mostly favorable, while still briefly faulting Reagan for homelessness and even indifference to AIDS. Even PBS could not suppress Reagan’s warmth, strength and optimism, which his friend, Humphrey, shared. The Reagan and Humphrey documentaries both hailed their elegant earthly exits as axiomatic of their character, for Reagan embodied in his Alzheimer’s announcement, and for Humphrey, in his outreach to Nixon.

Although ending at different places ideologically, Reagan and Humphrey, thanks partly to their early 20th century Midwestern religiosity and sensibility, both typified the appealingly sunny side of American politics. Sharing similar pasts, each was more interested in the future. And Humphrey, like Reagan, even in defeat, believed his nation’s best days were always ahead.

About the Author

Mark Tooley is president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C. and author of Methodism and Politics in the Twentieth Century. You can follow him on Twitter @markdtooley.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (80) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

Jack in Wi.| 8.26.11 @ 6:40AM

He was known as hot air Hubert over here in beighboring Wi. He was the biggest bag of gas I have seen in a poitician. He was almost as bad as Jerry Lewis in never shutting up. I will say this I think it would have been far better for America if Hubert had won the close 1968 election instead of Nixon. All the problems would have been his. His party had caused all the mess and he would have had to clean it up. All Nixon did was drag out Vietnam another four years. He also gave us OSHA, The EPA, Taking us off the gold Standard, forced busing, and four pro abortion votes on the Surpreme court. Humphrey could not have done worse. Hubert also was an outspoken prolifer. Nixon was nothing but a Judas goat for the Republicans and led us over the cliff. It would have been far better if Humphey had done the job.

lily | 8.27.11 @ 10:33AM

Humphrey was one of the last true liberals. The liberals of today are leftists! Period!I am a 28 years old doctor, mature and beautiful.and now I am seeking a good man who can give me real love , so i got a username Lindasunny2002 on--a'ge'l'es's'da'te.c óm--.it is the first and best club for y'ounger women and old'er men, or older women and y'ounger men,to int'eract with each other. Maybe you wanna ch'eck 'it out or tell your friends!

Michael Tomlinson| 8.26.11 @ 6:41AM

Humphrey was a liberal, but he was a decent man who loved America so different from the current generation of liberal Democrats.

The Bishop| 8.26.11 @ 8:40AM

I wholeheartedly agree, Michael. The contrast between the D's of today and Humphrey's gentlemanliness is stark. Politics have always been a dirty business. But in the last 20 years, it's gotten much, much dirtier in this country.

Michael Tomlinson| 8.26.11 @ 10:13AM

Bishop:
It started when they brought Nixon down, excelerated with Reagan, went into a frenzy with W and now they are just unhinged. The Democrats are a party of haters and it is sad. At least with Humphrey they were the loyal opposition.

Jack in Wi.| 8.26.11 @ 7:16AM

I want to correct what I said about 4 pro abortion votes. It was 3. Justice Rehnquist was a disenter on Roe and a fine judge. I also want to comment more on Nixon. He gave us wage and price controls, stagflation, continued ruinous taxes, Henry Kissenger, John Connoly, Spiro Agnew, and Watergate. He also went over to China to kiss the rear end of the greatest mass murderer in history. Chaiman Mao. It is one thing to open relations with China it is another to go there personally and behave in such a disgraceful manner. He also saved Israel in the 1973 war. He let himself be blackmailed by nuclear threats. He had it in his power to force a final settlement then and there. All in all he was a terrible President. I also want to comment on Hubert Humphrey and the neoconservatives. A lot of them got their start with him. That is perhaps why he is getting such a glowing tribute here.

W| 8.26.11 @ 11:26AM

Jack, you think Nixon was bad because he saved Israel from extinction? That was one of his best foreign policy decisions, I wish we had a Nixon now running our foreign policy. He ended the Vietnam War only to have the Dem Congress lose it in 1975 when it refused military, not men, aid to our ally, South Vietnam.

What settlement should Nixon have imposed upon Israel?

Al Adab| 8.26.11 @ 11:31AM

Frankly W, Nixon did a supurb job in the foreign policy realm given the constraints of the times. He accomplished much and in some way can be credited with "holding the line" untill Reagan emerged to finally end the Cold War.

The extremism of the current administration and the institutional Left makes one long for the day when a Humphrey was the liberal spokesman. Wrong as they were then, they were nonetheless patriots. I'm not sure we can say the same about the Left today.

W| 8.26.11 @ 12:04PM

Sheik Al Adab, as usual I agree, well said. Nixon was a complex, brilliant man. I have about 20 books about him. Too bad he did not have a bunch of loyal Republicans in Congress to support him as Clinton did when he was impeached.
Say what you will about Clinton, but at least the Dems were loyal to him, unlike the Reps who ran away from Nixon.

Occam's Tool| 8.26.11 @ 1:21PM

are you beginning to understand some of my more shrill pronouncements regarding Ron paul? Jack is one of the two strongest supporters of Paul on the TAS blog. He will insist that wishing for the destruction of Israel was not antisemitic either, incidentally.

Jews make a mistake in not knowing their true friends sometimes. Nixon was such a one. A Great Man, although flawed. Stein is right on him.

Jack in Wi.| 8.26.11 @ 3:32PM

Israel wasn't going to be extinct. Nixon had it in his power to force a peace on both sides. I would have told Golda Meir when she threatened to use nuclear weapons that Iwill blow you off the face of the earth, if you do. I would have told her to get back behind her 1967 borders and to stay there. I would have guarenteed Israel's existence and disarmed her of nuclear weapons. By now Israel would have been fully integrated into the area and been a valuble addition to the neighbor hood. Jews do a lot better as peaceful businessmen then as warriors. at least that is my opinion.

Al Adab| 8.26.11 @ 3:50PM

You mean Israel would now be the 51st state? Is it not still a nation in its own right like all the others that get foreign aid from us? We acknowledge their soveriegnty do we not?

I am not unsympathetic toward ending foreign aid and one of the justifications for doing so is the lack of quid pro quo. It never has bought us any friends for as they say, "Money cna't buy you Love."0

W| 8.26.11 @ 8:27PM

Jack, in Oct 1973, Egypt, Syria, and others attacked Israel. Israel was defending itself like the USA when Japan attacked us. You wanted Nixon to disarm Israel of its nuclear weapons, and threaten to nuke Israel. But you fail to mention what Egypt, Syria,and others had to do. Should we have disarmed them? Should we now disarm Israel, Iran, Syria, Turkey, and all other nations in the ME?
If Israel had no nuclear weapons, then
how would you guaranted Israel's existence unless we station troops there, and inspect all the surrounding countries for weapons?

I thought you were for Paul so we could get out of the ME, but you want us involved to disarm Israel, and be more involved in the ME that we are today.

Your only motivation seems to disarm Israel of its only real deterrent, the nuclear weapons.

Simon Templar| 8.26.11 @ 12:59PM

You fellows really need to ignore this jew hating jackboot and not reply or engage him.

W| 8.26.11 @ 1:32PM

Simon and OT, best to have him, and any others, say what they mean, so they cannot argue they were misquoted.
OT, I never said you were shrill. Paul has not said anything like Jack here, has he?

Michael Tomlinson| 8.28.11 @ 5:21AM

Simon agree even though I understand the desire to tweek him and see how silly the Paulistas are.

Occam's Tool| 8.26.11 @ 1:25PM

You are so right, Jack. Israel should have been allowed to use its 200 nukes in the Middle East. I'm sure your Arab friends would be thanking you today. Moron.

Al Adab| 8.26.11 @ 2:24PM

Occam,
I have never, and from my perspective, understood why there is not some gratitude shown to the Israeli army for its action during the '67 war. When they captured the Temple Mount with the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque, it was the Israeli commander on the scene who prevented the destruction of those monuments. Does it take much imagination to visualize what may have been were the shoe on the other foot?

RCV| 8.27.11 @ 9:09PM

And that wise commander was the great Moshe Dayan.

Chef Schnauzer| 8.26.11 @ 7:18AM

The best line of the whole peice: "Were these programs actually successful? Nobody interviewed bothers to ask." The bleading heart liberal media machine hasn't a nodding aquaintace with accountablility on the left.

Margaret Starry| 8.26.11 @ 7:49AM

Hubert Humphrey was the last good Democrat. Being from Minnesota I can say he was probably the last Democrat my family voted for and he was a wonderful man. I remember writing a letter to him as a teenager and receiving a signed letter back.

coal carrier| 8.26.11 @ 7:52AM

Thank you for the brief history lesson. I am 66 years old and I know all about H.H.H. His political ideology is what brought us to $15 Trillion in dept. The left complained about Reagan and said, “look at all the homeless.” Yet we, as a nation, have spent trillions and we have more homeless, more uneducated (and I am talking about recent collage graduates) and more unemployment since the Great depression, not to mention an economic system on the verge of collapse. Hubert H. Humphrey is the poster child for what not to do politically and economically to a thriving nation.

John Herlick| 8.26.11 @ 1:52PM

Amen, Brother. Say no ill about the dead, but you have told the truth. During my youth HHH was my U. S. Senator (I never had a chance to vote against him) There is a direct line from HHH's liberal hatred to today's liberal hatred.

Timothy L. Pennell| 8.26.11 @ 8:03AM

My favorite Humphrey quote, was when he was fighting for Affirmative Action (so that people like Eugene Robinson and Clarence Page and everyone's favorite "Sweetheart" Capeheart, could someday find employment) against the claims that it would turn in to a Quota System: "If Affirmative Action is really a Quota System? I'll eat my hat."
Bon Appetite.

Dan Hirsch| 8.26.11 @ 10:48AM

Timothy,

You will note than in the picture at the top of the article that Hubert is NOT wearing a hat...

I share your affinity for the hat eating quote.

And another thing, President Reagan may have expressed respect for FDR, especially earlier in his public life as a Democrat. I find it laughable to suggest that the Gipper would have looked favorably on FDR's Constitution-destroying efforts to exit the Great Depression using all of those politically-correct Keynesian theories which were known then and NOW to be ineffective.

Are you, Mr. Tooley, attempting to rehabilitate FDR in conservatives' eyes by claiming that President Reagan was an FDR fan? Fat chance, nice try, guess again. What are YOU up to, anyway?

Don't tread on me...

Butch| 8.26.11 @ 5:30PM

I was wondering when someone would cite that hat-eating quote. That summarizes the political life of HH perfectly: decent, patriotic, and always wrong. Modern liberals are simply the latter only.

Bill S| 8.26.11 @ 8:12AM

He was a liberal whose policies would've done great damage to the country. The only reason he's worth mentioning is that he wasn't deliberately trying to destroy the country the way Obama is today.

JimH| 8.26.11 @ 8:15AM

I like the current Triple H better.

Dan Hirsch| 8.26.11 @ 10:50AM

I'll bite- who or what is the current Triple H.

JimH| 8.26.11 @ 3:20PM

I guess you are not a fan of rasslin. Triple H a wrestler in the WWE. He lends it a bit of culture by sporting T shirts with aggressive Latin mottoes on them.

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 8.26.11 @ 8:20AM

Yes and look at what these politicians left behind. Their ideas were stupid and the implementation never worked. In America today we have successful failure. Other than failure not much else is working.

The Humphries should be case studies in what not to do:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....?icid=main|compaq-laptop|dl5|sec3_lnk3|222929
A gigantic, white rat was killed after being speared with a pitchfork at the Marcy Houses in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.

Jose Rivera, a Housing Authority worker, was clearing a rat hole when three of the mutants popped out, The New York Daily News reports, but he was only able to nab one. It appears to be almost three feet long, including the tail.

Naomi Colon, head of the Marcy Houses Tenant Association, told the News there have been sightings of the humongous rats for at least six years.

Residents described some horrifying confrontations with the rodents to BlackandBrownNews.com:

“In one day eight big size rats were killed,” said a Marcy Houses resident who declined to be named for fear of reprisal from city or property management. They were found in and around the buildings of the Nostrand-Myrtle avenue section of the property and have been seen on the playground. “They come out at night and the daytime,” said another resident who also did not want to provide a name.

JP| 8.26.11 @ 8:57AM

The segment of the US (Northern Midwest/Great Plains) has given us nothing but problems. Sen Humphrey was a decent moral man. But his form of idealism morphed into Progressivism. A large number of Progressive thinkers and politicians came from places like Minnisota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas and Montana. Here are a few:

Humphrey, Mondale, Warren Berger, Harry Blackmun, Max Baucus, Eugene McCarthy, Professor Richard Ely, and George McGovern.

These were all decent people. But the damage they did is still with us today.

Happy Birthday Hubert. RIP.

gene| 8.26.11 @ 9:10AM

When all of the liberal media reported that millions were homeless under Reagan, it was reported and repeated endlessly; spawned documentaries, movies etc. And it turned out that there were 600,000 homeless during Reagan's eight years. The same for George H. Bush, and the SAME under eight years of Clinton. The millions number was fraudulent. The media NEVER vetted the information and now it is still repeated as fact in false documentaries. As for Hubert? He spent a lifetime thinking he deserved to be President. He never realized that when he went around talking about himself constantly in the third person, he was alway coming across as a self absorbed, arrogant elitist. That does not mean that he was these things. Just that he had no real common touch with people. He could have learned a lot from his friend Ronald Reagan. However, he only listened to himself and he missed out on the Presidency time and time again.

Seek| 8.26.11 @ 11:43AM

Actually, the Census Bureau counted 230,000 homeless in 1990 in a special count. Even the 600,000 figure is way too high, never mind the B.S. about 3 million.

Howard| 8.26.11 @ 9:40AM

Humphrey was the last of the pro-America liberal Democrats. He was anti-communist, pro-labor, pro-business, and not ashamed of his country. I remember him fighting against McGovern in 1972, correctly predicting the leftward trend of the Democrats.

While I disagree with much of Humphrey politics, he was an honorable patriot. That is not true of much of the current crop of Democrats.

Michael Tomlinson| 8.26.11 @ 10:16AM

Howard exactly. He was wrong on policy, but right on America -- still the greatest country in the world despite Obama and Democrats trying to take it down.

Occam's Tool| 8.26.11 @ 1:22PM

Scoop Jackson was another such. So was Truman. Where the hell did they go?

Al Adab| 8.26.11 @ 1:56PM

Their party was co-opted by the hard Left, todays administration proves it, and has been radicalized by The Left into a statist, totalitarian Leviathan (with apologies to Hobbes). Any, from whatever part of the spectrum, who value Liberty must oppose what The Left and the modern Democrat party has become.

Michael Tomlinson| 8.28.11 @ 5:22AM

Occam like Jeane Kirkpatrick and Bill Bennett they're now all Republicans.

RCV| 8.29.11 @ 6:16PM

... the same place the Kenneth Keating, Jacob Javit, Everett Dirksen, Bill Scranton, Mark Hatfield, Tom Kuchel and Margaret Chase Smith on the GOP side went, I guess.

POST American| 8.26.11 @ 10:20AM

"America better watch it or in a couple
of decades you're going to be a minstrel
show for RED China--"
-GORE VIDAL
1985
(the very heyday of the RED China
sellout and TREASON OP)

--------------------------REAGAN was there.

Or, should we say, REAGAN wasn't there?

Enough with the Hollywood set ups!

-----------------BACK to Goldwater

-------------------------------Eisenhower

-------------------------------------Coolidge!

pete66| 8.26.11 @ 11:05AM

My Great Grandfather owned & operated a couple gas stations in Nort & Nord East (I know they're spelled wrong, but, it's how you have to say them) Mpls. from the late 40's through the mid 60's. I remember him telling my Mom that Humphrey was nothing but a shake down artist during an argument at my house. My mom said "Humphrey really cares about America and the poor". My Grandfathers reply..."Yep, one hand on his heart...the other hand in my wallet". And I knew exactly what he meant. it was 1975 and I was 9 yrs old.

Ironic isn't it....that the Hubert H. Humphrey Metro Dome's roof... like Liberalism, is held up by hot air, but ultimately they both have & will fail.

Chuck| 8.26.11 @ 11:58AM

Humphrey pulled off an amazing feat; he won the Democratic nomination in'68 on the first ballot and did not compete in any primaries. Back in those days most delegates were super delegates not bound to any primary. Humphrey canvassed the states for those delegates and led RFK by a 2-1 margin prior to the CA primary. Sadly the rest is history.

marcia| 8.26.11 @ 1:01PM

The legend of the metro dome dedication was that Mrs. Humphry when told that it was being held up by hot air remarked, "Hubert would have been so proud."

Simon Templar| 8.26.11 @ 2:23PM

I think the author needs to take a long look back into history of Liberalism of the twentieth century and a closer look at HHH.

Yes, he was from the same generation as Reagan and yes, he may have had greater respect for Americas institutions and it as a nation but he was as many were in the Old Liberal Left the catalyst and original ideological father of the New Left of which was largely succesful in taking over our education system, our governement, its policy, and most of our institutions. This New Left is now in full control and has influenced not only our world views, culture, but are public policy and and foreign policy for forty years. If you really want to know how the poser, Obama, sees the world and where his views came from then look at the following. It will explain a great deal to you about how we got to be where we are today and the difference between HHH and his errant 'children' of the New Left. Read it carefully. It is one of the slickest, carefully crafted, and misleading documents written in the last two centuries.

You may even be taken in by its half truths and clever arguments. You will see if you can keep your mind focused and sharp, it's hidden agenda and its dangerous inherent errors.
It is considered to be the manifesto of this new generation of Liberals (Socialist).

http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu.....huron.html

marshcope| 8.26.11 @ 4:21PM

It is probably futile to hope that NBC has buried in its vaults the video or at least the soundtrack of the mid70s latenight interview Tom Snyder did with HHH. (I had a cassette tape once of the thing which has been chewed up). Snyder fed Hubird cookies for 45 minutes, but got some interesting angles of the H psyche, even if H may have been deliberately acting for the camera. The sneaky suckass to LBJ H stays buried, but the sharp pol, sensitive guy, and doofy H who said Peachy, Yippee, and Politics of Joy is there onscreen. If I remember he had some interesting things to say about what happened to the Ford-Rockefeller coalition. And there is an interesting old article in Esquire in '78 with the theme "Hubert Humphrey is dying and everyone who claimed to loathe him is now claiming to have loved him!"

lrgon| 8.26.11 @ 6:18PM

Liberals may admire Wm. Jennings but there is no comparison of the two.

The Democrat party of Wm. Jennings Bryan's era was vastly different to that of Hubbert H. Humphrey's era. Bryan was opposed to WWI while Humphrey accepted the perpetual war for perpetual peace doctrine practiced by the Democrat Party. By the time Humprey's time rolled around both Parties were dominated by the war lovers and the big government scoundrels that have made a mess of the the free market and banished world peace.

general summerall| 8.26.11 @ 6:38PM

Back in the late '50s the Senate voted to put the portraits of the five greatest senators in the hallway of the Capitol: Clay, Webster, Calhoun, LaFollete, and Robt. Taft. I'm dubious about the last two, but I'm not that educated maybe. Which senators should replace the Five? Teddy the Lion? LBJ? Humphrey? Dole? Goldwater? Bilbo? Just curious about the Five Greatest.

Dipesto| 8.26.11 @ 6:49PM

General: I assume you were being snarky about listing Bilbo as a great senator, right? He was one of the great Bigots of the 20th century. I would put Thomas Hart Benton or James G. Blaine on the wall.

Al Adab| 8.27.11 @ 1:01PM

Dipesto, et al:
Benton makes sense. So for number five what about Mark Hanna or Everett Dirksen? Can maybe make a case for Robt. Taft since its interesting that few post 17th amendment figures rise to the level of Webster or Clay. HMM, food for thought there about direct election. Another progressdive era change gone wrong?

W| 8.27.11 @ 6:46PM

Dipesto, why Benton or Blaine

Mandeville| 8.26.11 @ 6:53PM

Carter Glass. He was a Senator for decades, and was the father of the Federal Reserve Bank system.

general summerall| 8.26.11 @ 7:02PM

yes, I was being snarky about Senator Bilbo. It was a momentary flash of tryingtobecuteness. I'm not sure that now in the two thousands J. C. Calhoun would have been voted a Greatest Senator, with his racial and nullifyist advocations

PCP Smoker| 8.26.11 @ 9:34PM

Not one to give a pass to someone who created and defended the monstrosity known as the Great Society. Sure, he was not a left wing nut by today's standards but that's not saying much.

D Roamer | 8.26.11 @ 10:58PM

Hubert Humphrey and A. Stevenson, admired them both. I remember a picture showing Adlai Stevenson sitting cross legged with his old shoe with a hole in it. Democrats are different today, seems they are ruthless, have no class.

F Goettl| 8.27.11 @ 12:02AM

Great article...the Happy Warrior, like his political descendant Paul Wellstone, did have a decidedly optimistic take on Government's ability to help the average, hard-working citizen.

Forget that he was wrong for just a second, and try not to remember how many truly shiftless people are on this or that public dole in our present day...what I like about him and Wellstone is that they mostly stuck to their principles, and believed, in a non-vicious way, that the state could actually help those less fortunate.

They of course didn't understand the acquisitiveness of mankind, and didn't forsee the disincentives inherent in the life of ease and certainty that the modern Nanny State has provided to its members.

They were still decent and God-fearing men, much better than the cynical factotums that populate the Democratic Party in 2011.

general summerall| 8.27.11 @ 12:30AM

HHH became hated when he fell into line with LBJ's Nam policies and he acted in public like LBJ's puppet. Maybe he did not want to get a dose of Johnson's Treatment tactic. Maybe the problem was What is a VP supposed to do in dealing with a Potus's policy? Big Bill Taft tried to get his VP James Sherman to put pressure on
Aldrich and other senators to get some Taft programs through, and Sherman's answer was "I'm not the President's errand boy." What the VP is really supposed to do in his job is a running question in American government.

k962| 8.27.11 @ 5:15AM

Humphrey was one of the last true liberals. The liberals of today are leftists! Period!

Wayne | 8.27.11 @ 11:45AM

It wasn't an anti-war movement at all. It was an anti-draft movement. As soon as Nixon ended the draft, the movement ended also.

When I think of HHH, I think of his ankles being black and blue from being kicked by LBJ. LBJ being your classic bully.

lanvigne| 8.27.11 @ 2:37PM

Nixon was nothing but a Judas goat for the Republicans and led us over the cliff. It would have been far better if Humphey had done the job.
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Aril| 8.27.11 @ 2:38PM

And I knew exactly what he meant. it was 1975 and I was 9 yrs old.
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RCV| 8.27.11 @ 9:15PM

Hubert Humphrey earned his place in American history as a courageous American liberal patriot on two fronts: He fought the Dixiecrats and insisted on equal rights for black Americans knowing that it would cost his party the South. And he fought tooth and nail to drive the Communists out of labor unions and liberal organizations.

Michael Tomlinson| 8.28.11 @ 5:24AM

Too bad he failed with the latter group. Labor unions are now the home of Marxist, Lennists, Stalinists and Maoists.

RCV| 8.28.11 @ 9:41PM

Michael, to you, anyone to the left of Rick Perry is a Marxist, Leninist, Stalinist or Maoist. Humphrey had the intelligence to know what those terms really meant.

Dipesto| 8.28.11 @ 4:24AM

HHH can be seen doing an early 50s TV interview on an evening show called Longines Chronoscope(which I had never heard of before) on Youtube. If you are interested in getting to see movers and shakers from c. 1952 there are also videos of Chronoscope interviews with people such as Joe McCarthy, John Foster Dulles, and even Admiral Byrd. The site is a treasure of early Ike/Cold War issues. Apparently the videos are part of a huge collection of old videos from the National Archives. Warning: some of the videos do have very poor sound quality.

adi| 8.28.11 @ 8:55AM

nice share....thx...

nice wallpapers

aboutandroids | 8.28.11 @ 10:15AM

I Just wondering when someone would cite that hat-eating quote. That summarizes the political life of HH perfectly: decent, patriotic, and always wrong. Modern liberals are simply the latter only.

Gasman| 8.28.11 @ 12:27PM

Lest we forget Humphrey was a co author of the infamous,Humphrey Hawkin's bill.

O Tamandua| 8.28.11 @ 3:27PM

One of Rush Limbaugh's listeners, back in the 90s, sent the talk show host a FASCINATING speech by the late Vice President Humphrey where the latter was warning his audience that rapid changes in technology and social mores were going to lead to a breakdown in our culture.

In that speech, Vice President Humphrey warned against the dangers even of playing card games (PLAYING CARD GAMES - now, remember that the original "Twilight Zone" in the late 50s/early 60s, with creator and JFK-era liberal Rod Serling at the helm, had shows like "The Fever" which was a deucedly anti-gambling screed). Humphrey's liberal policies were bad. But he'd NEVER have fit in with the liberals of today.

Oldefarte| 8.28.11 @ 3:37PM

Humphrey was a typical dispicable Democrat politician, who along with his boss Johnson, brought upon this country the Great Society and War on Poverty governmental programs that are today largely responsible for our legislatively debated defecits/debt. These wasteful welfare programs have done exactly nothing to relieve the poverty/stupidity of the mostly minority societal members that receive the governmental benefits from same. As stated numerous times, these welfare programs/benefits are Democrats' methods at enslavement for political purposes, and their forty year failed history of existence at taxpayers' expense is testament to same. The Democratic Party and its proponents such as Humphrey are a shining example of ignorance, stupidity, corrupt political manipulation, governmental economic/financial malfeasance, etc. Thank the Almighty that Humphrey failed in his attempt to become president, or no doubt the taxpayers of this country would be buried in four times the amount of government defecit/debt that they currently are faced with!!!!!

Goatlocker| 8.28.11 @ 5:31PM

As a former Democrat, I fondly recall voting for Hubert Humphrey for president. He exemplified the courage, character, sense of humor and inspired leadership, which were common virtues of Democrats of his era.

By contrast, I find today's Democrat icons to be whiney, craven, sniveling, snarky and most of the other adjectives that one can apply to those of questionable virtue.

Oldefarte| 8.29.11 @ 10:07AM

Yeah right, ASK NOT WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR COUNTRY, ASK WHAT YOUR COUNTRY CAN DO FOR YOU [ie gimme WELFARE]!!!!!!

Dipesto| 8.28.11 @ 7:29PM

In '79 I met Eugene McCarthy at a fundraiser picnic in my hometown, when he was thinking of running against Carter in '80. I wanted to see the guy who was a Big Name in '68--and Clean Gene was grouchy and whiney in '79. griping about fundraising laws and the primary system. as well as Carter. The demo yuppies I was surrounded by were adoring Gene, but I did not like him at all. Later I went to a fundraiser for Fred Harris, who gave a great speech, but his campaign was dead in the water.

general summerall| 8.28.11 @ 8:18PM

Re my current kick on who the Greatest Senators were; there have been hordes of these people who knew how to get elected and re-elected over and over, and on the Hill knew how to work the ropes of government to get very significant legislation through, and knew how to get great media coverage, even if, like Hamilton and Jefferson, they had a silliness in their personal lives. Maybe the ones who would considered the Greatest made policies that even now we are being affected by, even if the lines back to their policies are getting longer and more obscure. And there are congress people from the past who did now long dead politics ,and my eyes glaze over researching their achievements. There's some of that even in the not so long ago Ike era.
Maybe there is Heisenberg History; by looking at raw events your mind changes them. I don't know Humphrey would be considered a Greatest Senator. I might select Jacob Javits.

Oldefarte| 8.29.11 @ 10:11AM

Yeah, these so-called greatest senators [ie Democrats] have given us taxpayers the current defecit/debt governmental expense that we're now faced with. Maybe we sould all get on our collective knees and proclaim THANK YOU for the mountain of debt they established upon us and our children/grandchildren, huh?????

general summerall| 8.29.11 @ 2:51PM

Remember the TV commercial from a few years back set in an old Dark Ages castle with the king being told "A giant sloth is ravaging our lands," and the king asks Ned what to do. Ned drags out a huge bag of coins and advises to put it on a catapult and throw it at the monster. "You suggest we throw money at it?" "Yes!" I always have felt that the most problematic line [among several] from JFK's inaugural speech was when he said "We have it in our power to end Poverty in the world." I don't know if JK or Sorenson wrote that idealistic line, and really believed it (Kennedy was not that much of an idealist im0), but maybe the national thing of throwing money on a catapult at the monster started there.

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