Who was the most amazing political person you ever met?

jobycom

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Fri Aug-10-07 12:55 AM
Original message

Who was the most amazing political person you ever met?

I'm nostalgic tonight, and this came up in another post, and this person is just not remembered well enough for me.

I worked for Ralph Yarborough in the early 90s. For those who don't know, he was a Texas senator from 1957 to 1971. He was close to JFK, and was on the short list for VP in 1960. He was in the motorcade when Kennedy was shot. He was at once a bitter rival and close friend of LBJ. He refused to sign the Southern Manifesto opposing desegregation, and voted for every civil rights bill put before him. He voted against Viet Nam every time, and spoke against it. He was for the GI bill, and championed GI benefits. He championed health care issues, elder care, bilingual education, and most things we all love, as senator from Texas. Unlike JFK and LBJ, he did not try to soften his liberal views, and yet he won three elections--a special election in 1957, and two regular elections in 58 and 64, when he defeated George Bush. By the end of his career, he chaired one of the most powerful committees in DC, before losing in the primaries in 1970, when he was sucker punched by George Bush, and the Democratic Party in Texas--mainly Lloyd Bentsen. In the end, part of the reason he lost was because he refused to act moderate, and opposed one of Nixon's SCOTUS appointees--helping to reject a nominee Texas saw as friendly to their cause.

My main memories of him are of his smile and his laughing voice, and of his marriage. He married his childhood best friend, whom he had known since second grade, and who only agreed to marry him if he swore to stay out of politics. He was still married to her at the end, despite breaking his one promise. In June of 93 they celebrated a combination of his and her 90th birthday and their 75th wedding anniversary. A special party was held at the Governors Mansion, where I met Ann Richards, William Wayne Justice, and a lot of Texas figures most people wouldn't know. Ann Richards even spoke to me for a while about the newborn daughter I was holding, joking about babies being impossible for politicians to resist.

He was hard of hearing, but his mind was incredible, even at 90. He could dictate a speech extemporaneously, and when finished tell his assistant what changes he wanted to make, without even seeing the transcript. He was a football fan, and would get worked up about the officiating of the latest UT game. He gave campaign advice to senators and local politicians, and they took it. When Clinton and Gore went on their bus tour after the convention in 92, they stopped in Austin, and invited Yarborugh along to the next stop. Gore and Yarborough talked about Gore's father, whom Yarborough had known well. Yarborough even convinced the future president and VP to take a couple hour detour to go through Yarborough's home town--the small town of Chandler, in northeast Texas. Not many votes there, but they indulged him, anyway. Maybe it wasn't indulgence. Probably more like awe and respect.

I would sit in his little brick house in Austin and listen to stories, or receive instructions--I was supposed to be working for him--and sweat like a pig, because they had the house constantly well above stifling. And they were still cold, of course. I would sit next to the Senator and practically yell so he could hear me. At times he'd finally give up trying, and turn to his wife across the room, and ask "what did he say?" She would speak so softly I could barely hear her, but he would nod, and say "Oh," and answer me. That still amazed me, that he could hear her so clearly, when he couldn't hear anything I said.

The thing that impressed me the most about him as a person, though, was his ability to make people smile. I watched him do it to others--politicians, or people who had sought him out for an interview on something or other. And he did it to me. He affected everyone the same. People would come to him in a foul mood, or sad, or stressed, and they would leave smiling. Every time.

Who's your greatest? Who's your hero?