Hump Day
The inimitable Irish Elk digs up a splendid Hubert Humphrey anecdote from the new Peter Beinart book that has the netroots Democrats fulminating and caluminating:
From The Good Fight: Why Liberals -- and Only Liberals -- Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again.
Which reminded me of this tribute to Humphrey.
For my money, Humphrey was one of the good guys that a politician of any party could appreciate, an essentially decent and basically honest man who was screwed out of the presidency twice by his own people — first by the Kennedys’ money and dirty tricks, then by Johnson’s abandonment of his veep. He was the Henry Clay of his generation, and as RWNH points out, he deserves his place in the national pantheon for his bravery in leading the national Democratic Party’s break with segregation in 1948.
Here's another good piece on him.
IE's also got a great round-up of recent commentary on this movement -- I hope it's a movement. Or else call it "this bubble of dissent popping out of the hardening foul mass of illiberal leftism." If you prefer.
In June, Communists and their allies had packed the state DFL convention in Saint Paul, choosing their own slate to run the party, and passing resolutions excoriating Truman's new hard line toward Moscow. When Humphrey rose to speak, the crowd greeted him with cries of "fascist" and "warmonger." He persevered, until a security guard growled, "Sit down, you son of a bitch, or I'll knock you down." And so, without finishing his remarks, Humphrey did.
From The Good Fight: Why Liberals -- and Only Liberals -- Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again.
Which reminded me of this tribute to Humphrey.
For my money, Humphrey was one of the good guys that a politician of any party could appreciate, an essentially decent and basically honest man who was screwed out of the presidency twice by his own people — first by the Kennedys’ money and dirty tricks, then by Johnson’s abandonment of his veep. He was the Henry Clay of his generation, and as RWNH points out, he deserves his place in the national pantheon for his bravery in leading the national Democratic Party’s break with segregation in 1948.
Here's another good piece on him.
IE's also got a great round-up of recent commentary on this movement -- I hope it's a movement. Or else call it "this bubble of dissent popping out of the hardening foul mass of illiberal leftism." If you prefer.
