By Edwin Cooney
I know it’s almost a scandal to feel this way, but I’m
rooting for a comeback on the part of America’s lowliest underdog: the Congress
of the United States. It may shock you
to know, although it shouldn’t, that the halls of Congress have reverberated
with the foresight, creativity and wisdom of some of the most remarkable men
and women in history.
In fact, today, January 6th, 2014, marks the 132nd
anniversary of the birth of one of the most outstanding members ever to sit in
Congress, Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn of Texas.
Sam Rayburn served in Congress from January 4th, 1913 to
November 16th, 1961 –- the day he died. Elected the forty-eighth Speaker of the House
of Representatives on Monday, September 16th, 1940, “Mr. Sam,” as he
was to become known, would serve as Speaker for seventeen out of the next
twenty-one years. (Note: Rayburn succeeded William B. Bankhead of Alabama --
the father of actress Tallulah Bankhead -- on the occasion of Bankhead’s sudden
death the previous day.)
Born and baptized in Kingston, Roane County, Tennessee into
the Primitive Baptist Church (also known as the Old Line or Hard Shell Baptist
Church), Rayburn and his family moved to Bonham, Texas in 1887. A 1903 graduate of Texas A&M, Rayburn was
admitted to the Texas Bar in 1908 and joined the law firm of Steger, Thurmond
and Rayburn that same year. In 1907 at
age 25, he entered the Texas State Legislature and, just four years later at
the tender age of 29, he served as Speaker of the State Assembly until his
election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1912 at age 30.
Integrity was of such importance to Rayburn that from the
moment he took his seat in the Texas Legislature he refused to accept fees from
corporations although it was common practice and he was legally entitled to
receive them through his law firm from such clients as the Santa Fe
Railroad. Sam Rayburn would avoid any
possible conflict of interest throughout his public service.
An even more interesting aspect of “Mr. Sam’s” social
outlook is the fact that although he was invariably close both politically and
socially to men who were dedicated segregationists, he refused to sign the
“Southern Manifesto.” (Other Southerners who refused to sign included Senators
Al Gore Sr., Estes Kefauver and Lyndon Johnson.)
Written in January and February of 1956, the Southern
Manifesto pledged to lawfully do whatever it might take to overturn the 1954
Supreme Court decision ending segregation in the public schools. A protégé of FDR’s first vice president,
former House Speaker and fellow Texan John Nance Garner, “Mr. Sam,” chose to
work quietly and effectively behind the scenes to accomplish his and the
Democratic party’s agenda rather than posturing before the public as a champion
of ideological principles. To that end
he established a private club he called “The Board of Education,” which met
after hours to drink bourbon and discuss various aspects of pending
legislation. Speaker Rayburn’s “Board of
Education” was available only to those who received invitations to attend its
sessions. In fact, Vice President Harry
Truman had just arrived at a session of Mr. Sam’s Board around 5 p.m. on the
afternoon of Thursday, April 12th, 1945 when he was called to the
White House to assume the presidency on the death of President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt.
It would be both false and naive for me to suggest that
either “Mr. Sam” or others of his era were always above politics or
statesmanlike in all that they did. After all, political power or, if you
prefer, control of public affairs and issues was precisely their agenda. However, men such as Sam Rayburn realized
that political principles were guidelines for the practice of good government
rather than ends in themselves. Thus, in
“Mr. Sam’s” day, a sitting president, whether his name was Calvin Coolidge or
Franklin Roosevelt, was entitled to the benefit of all doubts by virtue of his
election to his high office by a free people.
Privately, Sam Rayburn had little regard for either John or Robert
Kennedy because of their less than gallant treatment of his friend Lyndon
Johnson, but once Jack Kennedy became President Kennedy, “Mr. Sam” considered
it his patriotic duty to play whatever part he needed to play for JFK to
succeed in office.
Now, as Speaker Boehner’s gavel opens the second session of
the 113th Congress, that historic and essential body’s reputation
has never been so low. Even worse, by
its almost total lack of cooperation with President Obama, it has earned that
reputation. The most discouraging part
of that conclusion is that Congress generally reflects the mood of its
constituency.
This was true during the early Nineteenth Century when
Congressman John Randolph of Roanoke, an exceedingly eccentric Virginia
planter, often brought his pistols, his whip and his hounds onto the floor of
the House of Representatives – after all, rich Virginia planters were the
social and economic backbone of the South and were presumably entitled to
behave as they pleased and attain what they desired.
The pre-Civil War mood was reflected in May 1856 when
Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina severely beat nearly to death
Massachusetts’ abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner at his desk on the floor of
the Senate.
Congress reflected the desperation of the American people
during the Depression in 1933 when it passed FDR’s New Deal legislation with
little resistance within the first hundred days of his administration.
In May of 1961, “Mr. Sam’s” last spring as Speaker, Congress
reflected the determination of the American people to beat the Soviet Union in
the space race when it agreed to appropriate the necessary financial and other
resources necessary to land a man on the moon by 1970. As Harry Truman once observed: “Any jackass
can kick a barn down. It takes a carpenter to build a barn.”
Since Congress must be political by design, the best
politicians find a way to feed the hopes and needs of the broadest possible
constituency. Politics is ultimately the
art of blending natural, economic and spiritual resources to accomplish the
greatest possible good for the greatest possible number of people.
Yes indeed! I’m
rooting for Congress, America’s lowly underdog.
Let’s see now – how should the necessary cheer go for urging Congress
forward? Let’s see now, hmmmm!
Go Congress, go Congress, go Congress, go! Pass resolutions,
pass those bills! Go Congress go!
Go Congress, go Congress, go Congress, go! Hoist the flag!
Appropriate the money till the voters are happy and the talk show hosts go
daffy and the chickens come home to roost!
Go Congress, go Congress, go Congress, go! Be as crazy as
Randolph, as principled as Sumner!
Always remember that the voters never slumber!
Never mind, I better shut
up. “Mr. Sam” just turned over in his
grave!
SORROWFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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