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Everett Dirksen Said That?

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Everett Dirksen Said That? Everett Dirksen Said That? Compiled by Frank H. Mackaman Second Edition March 2015 “The deeper we get into this session,” Dirksen once confessed, “the longer the tip of my tongue gets away from my brain.” 1 Table of Contents Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................................ 2 Foreword .............................................................................................................................................................. 4 Ambition ............................................................................................................................ 6 Birthday 1964 .................................................................................................................................................... 8 Campaigns ......................................................................................................................................................... 10 Change................................................................................................................................................................. 14 Civility................................................................................................................................................................. 17 Civil Rights ....................................................................................................................................................... 22 Congress ............................................................................................................................................................. 25 Constituents ...................................................................................................................................................... 31 Democrats.......................................................................................................................................................... 33 Family .................................................................................................................................................................. 39 Freedom .............................................................................................................................................................. 43 Gardening .......................................................................................................................................................... 46 Governing .......................................................................................................................................................... 49 Health ................................................................................................................................................................... 51 Lyndon Baines Johnson ............................................................................................................................. 53 Leadership ......................................................................................................................................................... 58 Legacy ................................................................................................................................................................. 65 Legislation ......................................................................................................................................................... 69 Media ................................................................................................................................................................... 76 Minority .............................................................................................................................................................. 78 Mistakes ............................................................................................................................................................. 84 Mood .................................................................................................................................................................... 85 Oratory ................................................................................................................................................................ 90 Pekin ..................................................................................................................................................................... 98 Philosophy ....................................................................................................................................................... 100 2 Politics ............................................................................................................................................................... 108 Quips .................................................................................................................................................................. 114 Religion ............................................................................................................................................................ 125 Senate ................................................................................................................................................................. 129 Spending........................................................................................................................................................... 134 Threats ............................................................................................................................................................... 146 Washington ..................................................................................................................................................... 151 Youth.................................................................................................................................................................. 152 3 Foreword “He speaks, and the words emerge in a soft, sepulchral baritone. They undulate in measured phrases, expire in breathless wisps. He fills his lungs and blows word-rings like smoke. The words curl upward. They chase each other around the room in dreamy images of Steamboat Gothic. Now he conjures moods of mirth, now of sorrow. … ‘Motherhood,’ he whispers and grown men weep. ‘The Flag!’ he bugles, and everybody salutes. No one who has seen and heard this performance will ever forget it.”1 Everett McKinley Dirksen (1896-1969) was as renowned for his use of the language as for his legislative prowess in the U.S. House of Representatives (1933-1949) and the Senate (1951-1969). Popular with reporters, animated in his own press conferences, a frequent guest on the Sunday morning talk shows, a favorite of Republican candidates on the campaign trail, and an orator from the old school on the House or Senate floor, Dirksen’s remarks gained him no small measure of fame. He understood the importance of language, of words, of reasoning and argument. His friends in the press applied various adjectives to describe Dirksen’s oratorical flair. Among the most colorful were “Honey Tonsils,” “The Senate’s Golden Voice,” “The Capitol’s Foremost Forensic Mesmerizer,” “The Old Growler,” “The Rumpled Magician of the Metaphor,” “Colorful Cornball,” “Silver Throated Senator,” “Pagliacci of American Politics,” and “Buttered Larynx.” One Congress member noted that Dirksen could recite the alphabet and make it sound like the Gettysburg Address, while anybody else could recite the Gettysburg Address and it would sound like the alphabet.2 The passages in Everett Dirksen Said That? are meant to be representative, not definitive, of Everett Dirksen’s views on myriad topics. He spoke in thousands of venues and uttered millions of words. Regrettably, rarely did he compose a speech in advance, preferring to speak from memory or from a very brief outline. There were no stenographers following him to create transcripts of his remarks. As a result, one 1 Time, September 14, 1962, Dirksen Information File, f. Articles. 2 Anne Culler Penney, Dirksen: The Golden Voice of the Senate (Washington: Acropolis Books, 1968): 61-62. 4 must rely on news accounts, on the Congressional Record, on compilations prepared by others, and on the occasional interview transcript. With a few exceptions, this compilation tends not to feature Dirksen’s remarks on specific issues, such as civil rights or the war in Vietnam, nor does it encompass Dirksen’s campaign remarks. He, of course, spoke volumes about the issues facing Congress—the Congressional Record is the best source for them. Finally, missing is Dirksen’s most famous saying: “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money” or some variation on that theme. After pouring over thousands of clippings, speeches, and press conference transcripts, I am not convinced he ever uttered that phrase. It appears nowhere in print. 5 Ambition Writing in March 1933 as he was about to begin his first term in the U.S. House: What can a young, inexperienced, Republican Congressman, divested of all patronage, do for his country and his district in the midst of a three to one Democratic majority? The question has often been asked. It is a stimulus to the individual ego and conceit and might easily prompt a recital of good intentions and novel resolves. While this situation has its disadvantages, there is
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