Monday, June 30, 2003 :::
I had occasion to recall one of my favorite political stories this evening. Hence the following, from page 63 of the paperback edition of Bill Bradley's memoirs, titled "Time Present, Time Past":
As a leader of the Republican--conservative-Democrat coalition during the first six years of the New Deal, [Senator Walter] George [of Georgia] became a thorn in FDR's side, and in 1938 the president opposed his re-election, going so far as to endorse his own candidate, Lawrence Camp, in the Georgia Democratic primary. At the dedication of a Rural Electrification project in Barnesville, Georgia, and with Senator George only a few feet away, FDR said that George did not have "a constant active fighting attitude in favor of the broad objectives of the party and of the government as they are constituted today" and did not "in his heart, deep down in his heart, believe in these objectives." Senator George told the president that day, "Mr. President, I want you to know that I accept the challenge." Roosevelt's candidate lost. When Senator George returned to the Senate, FDR knew he had a problem, so he sent a young aide to apologize. The young man began by saying what a blunder the president's decision to oppose George had been, but that George should probably let bygones be bygones. "You know the president," the young aide is reported to have said, "he's his own worst enemy." There was a long pause. Then George said, "No he isn't."
I don't think I ever finished that book, incidentally -- it wasn't that I didn't enjoy it, it was one of those things where one gets distracted by something else (in this case, it was probably schoolwork -- this was while I was still an undergrad) and one never gets back to it.
::: posted by Steven at 10:57 PM
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