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All-Star Senate
Gosling
Looking Up Soccer In Mongolia Right Now, ProbablyWatertown, WIRegistered User regular
Looking Up Soccer In Mongolia Right Now, ProbablyWatertown, WIRegistered User regular
Picking the best President ever is pretty simple. Hmmm. Lincoln or Washington? Gets pretty repetitive. Let's kick things up a notch.
Over the past little while, I've been building an all-star Senate- the top two Americans to have ever served as Senators of each state. Pretty straightforward. Here's how this worked.
*In order to qualify, the person must have served as Senator. A few served as Senators of more than one state (one guy did three, the rest did two); had any of them made the team, they would qualify in any state which they served, but obviously, cannot represent more than one state.
*Anything the person did over their lifetime may be taken into consideration, whether it was during their time as Senator, in another office, or as a private citizen. Senatorial service is really just a tiebreaker.
*What makes a Senator 'great' is defined however one wishes to define it, but I personally went with 'did great things, stood for great things, and stuck by their beliefs even when politically poisonous.' (It's a sliding scale depending on what state you're talking about. Illinois, for example, had one of the most heated competitions nationwide. Mississippi got it right surprisingly often for a slave state. Most of the other states, though, particularly Alabama and Arkansas, wound up turning into "Okay, who's the LEAST racist?")
*People who wound up on the right side of history are quite obviously going to get the edge. Again, see the South.
*Party matters not. Unless I knew the party offhand (and usually I didn't), I only really took down the name of the party after I had already selected the name for inclusion. It sat right there in front of me, and I often looked, but I didn't pay attention until the name was on the list. (However, when someone was known for being an unwavering supporter of their given party, that I noticed, and that almost always got you removed from consideration. Great men think for themselves.)
You will probably notice that most of the team served in the 1900's or later. Three reasons for that:
*For the older guys, some of what they did is either lost to history or in a context that no longer makes much sense today.
*States came in staggered. Hawaii and Alaska didn't enter the union till 1959.
*In the early days, Senators were appointed by the state legislature, not elected by the people. People unaccountable to the voters are less likely to achieve greatness (or be inclined to do so) than people that are.
Following are my picks. Disagreement is of course welcome, but the best method of doing so is probably less 'he shouldn't be in there' and more 'okay, tell me who should'. You know the state, there's a set field to pick from and only two slots open.
PARTY KEY:
Democrat
Republican
Federalist
Whig
Democratic-Republican
Independent
Anti-Administration
Free Soil
State- Senator (Tenure)
Alabama- Oscar Underwood (1915-1927)
Alabama- J. Lister Hill (1938-1969)
Alaska- Bob Bartlett (1959-1968)
Alaska- Mike Gravel (1969-1981)
Arizona- Ernest McFarland (1941-1953)
Arizona- Barry Goldwater (1953-1965, 1969-1987)
Arkansas- John Little McClellan (1943-1977)
Arkansas- J. William Fulbright (1945-1974)
California- Leland Stanford (1885-1893)
California- Stephen M. White (1893-1899)
Colorado- Simon Guggenheim (1907-1913)
Colorado- Tim Wirth (1987-1993)
Connecticut- Oliver Ellsworth (1789-1796)
Connecticut- Roger Sherman (1791-1793)
Delaware- James A. Bayard Sr. (1804-1813)
Delaware- John J. Williams (1947-1970)
Florida- Claude Pepper (1936-1951)
Florida- Spessard Holland (1946-1971)
Georgia- William Few (1789-1793)
Georgia- Richard Russell Jr. (1933-1971)
Hawaii- Daniel Inouye (1963-current)
Hawaii- Spark Matsunaga (1977-1990)
Idaho- William E. Borah (1907-1940)
Idaho- Frank Church (1957-1981)
Illinois- David Davis (1877-1883)
Illinois- Paul Douglas (1949-1967)
Indiana- Daniel W. Voorhees (1877-1897)
Indiana- Birch Bayh (1963-1981)
Iowa- James F. Wilson (1883-1895)
Iowa- Tom Harkin (1985-current)
Kansas- John James Ingalls (1873-1891)
Kansas- Bob Dole (1969-1996)
Kentucky- Henry Clay (1806-1807, 1810-1811, 1831-1842, 1849-1852)
Kentucky- Happy Chandler (1939-1945)
Louisiana- Edward Livingston (1829-1831)
Louisiana- Huey Long (1932-1935)
Maine- John Ruggles (1835-1841)
Maine- Olympia Snowe (1995-current)
Maryland- John Walter Smith (1908-1921)
Maryland- Paul Sarbanes (1977-2007)
Massachusetts- John Quincy Adams (1803-1808)
Massachusetts- John F. Kennedy (1953-1960)
Michigan- Zachariah Chandler (1857-1875, 1879-1879)
Michigan- Arthur H. Vandenberg (1928-1951)
Minnesota- Frank B. Kellogg (1917-1923)
Minnesota- Hubert Humphrey (1949-1964, 1971-1978)
Mississippi- Adelbert Ames (1870-1874)
Mississippi- LeRoy Percy (1910-1913)
Missouri- Carl Schurz (1869-1875)
Missouri- Harry Truman (1935-1945)
Montana- Wilbur F. Sanders (1890-1893)
Montana- Mike Mansfield (1953-1977)
Nebraska- George William Norris (1913-1943)
Nebraska- Chuck Hagel (1997-current)
Nevada- Francis G. Newlands (1903-1917)
Nevada- Howard W. Cannon (1959-1983)
New Hampshire- John Langdon (1789-1801)
New Hampshire- Nicholas Gilman (1805-1814)
New Jersey- William Paterson (1789-1790)
New Jersey- William Warren Barbour (1931-1937, 1938-1943)
New Mexico- Dennis Chavez (1935-1962)
New Mexico- Clinton P. Anderson (1949-1973)
New York- Rufus King 1789-1796, (1813-1825)
New York- William H. Seward (1849-1861)
North Carolina- Jesse Franklin (1799-1805, 1807-1813)
North Carolina- Terry Sanford (1986-1993)
North Dakota- Gerald Nye (1925-1945)
North Dakota- John Moses (1945-1945)
Ohio- Benjamin Wade (1851-1869)
Ohio- Salmon P. Chase (1861-1861)
Oklahoma- Thomas Gore (1907-1921, 1931-1937)
Oklahoma- Elmer Thomas (1927-1951)
Oregon- Charles L. McNary (1917-1918, 1919-1944)
Oregon- Mark Hatfield (1967-1997)
Pennsylvania- Robert Morris (1789-1795)
Pennsylvania- Albert Gallatin (1793-1794)
Rhode Island- Nelson W. Aldrich (1881-1911)
Rhode Island- John Chafee (1977-1999)
South Carolina- Wade Hampton III (1879-1891)
South Carolina- James F. Byrnes (1931-1941)
South Dakota- George McGovern (1963-1981)
South Dakota- Larry Pressler (1979-1997)
Tennessee- Estes Kefauver (1949-1963)
Tennessee- Al Gore Jr. (1985-1993)
Texas- Sam Houston (1846-1859)
Texas- John H. Reagan (1887-1891)
Utah- Arthur Vivian Watkins (1946-1959)
Utah- Frank Moss (1959-1977)
Vermont- George Aiken (1941-1975)
Vermont- Jim Jeffords (1989-2007)
Virginia- James Monroe (1790-1794)
Virginia- John W. Johnston (1870-1883)
Washington- Lewis B. Schwellenbach (1935-1940)
Washington- Daniel J. Evans (1983-1989)
West Virginia- Matthew M. Neely (1923-1929, 1931-1941)
West Virginia- Jennings Randolph (1958-1985)
Wisconsin- Robert M. La Follette, Sr. (1906-1925)
Wisconsin- William Proxmire (1957-1989)
Wyoming- Francis E. Warren (1890-1893, 1895-1929)
Wyoming- Alan K. Simpson (1979-1997)
Over the past little while, I've been building an all-star Senate- the top two Americans to have ever served as Senators of each state. Pretty straightforward. Here's how this worked.
*In order to qualify, the person must have served as Senator. A few served as Senators of more than one state (one guy did three, the rest did two); had any of them made the team, they would qualify in any state which they served, but obviously, cannot represent more than one state.
*Anything the person did over their lifetime may be taken into consideration, whether it was during their time as Senator, in another office, or as a private citizen. Senatorial service is really just a tiebreaker.
*What makes a Senator 'great' is defined however one wishes to define it, but I personally went with 'did great things, stood for great things, and stuck by their beliefs even when politically poisonous.' (It's a sliding scale depending on what state you're talking about. Illinois, for example, had one of the most heated competitions nationwide. Mississippi got it right surprisingly often for a slave state. Most of the other states, though, particularly Alabama and Arkansas, wound up turning into "Okay, who's the LEAST racist?")
*People who wound up on the right side of history are quite obviously going to get the edge. Again, see the South.
*Party matters not. Unless I knew the party offhand (and usually I didn't), I only really took down the name of the party after I had already selected the name for inclusion. It sat right there in front of me, and I often looked, but I didn't pay attention until the name was on the list. (However, when someone was known for being an unwavering supporter of their given party, that I noticed, and that almost always got you removed from consideration. Great men think for themselves.)
You will probably notice that most of the team served in the 1900's or later. Three reasons for that:
*For the older guys, some of what they did is either lost to history or in a context that no longer makes much sense today.
*States came in staggered. Hawaii and Alaska didn't enter the union till 1959.
*In the early days, Senators were appointed by the state legislature, not elected by the people. People unaccountable to the voters are less likely to achieve greatness (or be inclined to do so) than people that are.
Following are my picks. Disagreement is of course welcome, but the best method of doing so is probably less 'he shouldn't be in there' and more 'okay, tell me who should'. You know the state, there's a set field to pick from and only two slots open.
PARTY KEY:
Democrat
Republican
Federalist
Whig
Democratic-Republican
Independent
Anti-Administration
Free Soil
State- Senator (Tenure)
Alabama- Oscar Underwood (1915-1927)
Alabama- J. Lister Hill (1938-1969)
Alaska- Bob Bartlett (1959-1968)
Alaska- Mike Gravel (1969-1981)
Arizona- Ernest McFarland (1941-1953)
Arizona- Barry Goldwater (1953-1965, 1969-1987)
Arkansas- John Little McClellan (1943-1977)
Arkansas- J. William Fulbright (1945-1974)
California- Leland Stanford (1885-1893)
California- Stephen M. White (1893-1899)
Colorado- Simon Guggenheim (1907-1913)
Colorado- Tim Wirth (1987-1993)
Connecticut- Oliver Ellsworth (1789-1796)
Connecticut- Roger Sherman (1791-1793)
Delaware- James A. Bayard Sr. (1804-1813)
Delaware- John J. Williams (1947-1970)
Florida- Claude Pepper (1936-1951)
Florida- Spessard Holland (1946-1971)
Georgia- William Few (1789-1793)
Georgia- Richard Russell Jr. (1933-1971)
Hawaii- Daniel Inouye (1963-current)
Hawaii- Spark Matsunaga (1977-1990)
Idaho- William E. Borah (1907-1940)
Idaho- Frank Church (1957-1981)
Illinois- David Davis (1877-1883)
Illinois- Paul Douglas (1949-1967)
Indiana- Daniel W. Voorhees (1877-1897)
Indiana- Birch Bayh (1963-1981)
Iowa- James F. Wilson (1883-1895)
Iowa- Tom Harkin (1985-current)
Kansas- John James Ingalls (1873-1891)
Kansas- Bob Dole (1969-1996)
Kentucky- Henry Clay (1806-1807, 1810-1811, 1831-1842, 1849-1852)
Kentucky- Happy Chandler (1939-1945)
Louisiana- Edward Livingston (1829-1831)
Louisiana- Huey Long (1932-1935)
Maine- John Ruggles (1835-1841)
Maine- Olympia Snowe (1995-current)
Maryland- John Walter Smith (1908-1921)
Maryland- Paul Sarbanes (1977-2007)
Massachusetts- John Quincy Adams (1803-1808)
Massachusetts- John F. Kennedy (1953-1960)
Michigan- Zachariah Chandler (1857-1875, 1879-1879)
Michigan- Arthur H. Vandenberg (1928-1951)
Minnesota- Frank B. Kellogg (1917-1923)
Minnesota- Hubert Humphrey (1949-1964, 1971-1978)
Mississippi- Adelbert Ames (1870-1874)
Mississippi- LeRoy Percy (1910-1913)
Missouri- Carl Schurz (1869-1875)
Missouri- Harry Truman (1935-1945)
Montana- Wilbur F. Sanders (1890-1893)
Montana- Mike Mansfield (1953-1977)
Nebraska- George William Norris (1913-1943)
Nebraska- Chuck Hagel (1997-current)
Nevada- Francis G. Newlands (1903-1917)
Nevada- Howard W. Cannon (1959-1983)
New Hampshire- John Langdon (1789-1801)
New Hampshire- Nicholas Gilman (1805-1814)
New Jersey- William Paterson (1789-1790)
New Jersey- William Warren Barbour (1931-1937, 1938-1943)
New Mexico- Dennis Chavez (1935-1962)
New Mexico- Clinton P. Anderson (1949-1973)
New York- Rufus King 1789-1796, (1813-1825)
New York- William H. Seward (1849-1861)
North Carolina- Jesse Franklin (1799-1805, 1807-1813)
North Carolina- Terry Sanford (1986-1993)
North Dakota- Gerald Nye (1925-1945)
North Dakota- John Moses (1945-1945)
Ohio- Benjamin Wade (1851-1869)
Ohio- Salmon P. Chase (1861-1861)
Oklahoma- Thomas Gore (1907-1921, 1931-1937)
Oklahoma- Elmer Thomas (1927-1951)
Oregon- Charles L. McNary (1917-1918, 1919-1944)
Oregon- Mark Hatfield (1967-1997)
Pennsylvania- Robert Morris (1789-1795)
Pennsylvania- Albert Gallatin (1793-1794)
Rhode Island- Nelson W. Aldrich (1881-1911)
Rhode Island- John Chafee (1977-1999)
South Carolina- Wade Hampton III (1879-1891)
South Carolina- James F. Byrnes (1931-1941)
South Dakota- George McGovern (1963-1981)
South Dakota- Larry Pressler (1979-1997)
Tennessee- Estes Kefauver (1949-1963)
Tennessee- Al Gore Jr. (1985-1993)
Texas- Sam Houston (1846-1859)
Texas- John H. Reagan (1887-1891)
Utah- Arthur Vivian Watkins (1946-1959)
Utah- Frank Moss (1959-1977)
Vermont- George Aiken (1941-1975)
Vermont- Jim Jeffords (1989-2007)
Virginia- James Monroe (1790-1794)
Virginia- John W. Johnston (1870-1883)
Washington- Lewis B. Schwellenbach (1935-1940)
Washington- Daniel J. Evans (1983-1989)
West Virginia- Matthew M. Neely (1923-1929, 1931-1941)
West Virginia- Jennings Randolph (1958-1985)
Wisconsin- Robert M. La Follette, Sr. (1906-1925)
Wisconsin- William Proxmire (1957-1989)
Wyoming- Francis E. Warren (1890-1893, 1895-1929)
Wyoming- Alan K. Simpson (1979-1997)
I have a new soccer blog The Minnow Tank. Reading it psychically kicks Sepp Blatter in the bean bag.
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The first two that came to my mind would be Fighting Bob, as you choose, and then Feingold. But after reading about Proxmire, hes even better. Starter of the Golden Fleece Award and spending only $200 on a reelection campaign are just phenomenal, and this little fact is also pretty damn cool
Just in case anyone has failed to see the statue of Wade Hampton on the State House grounds:
And while I was looking for someone who wasn't a Confederate officer to put in the list, I found another sterling example of a South Carolina statesman with a statue on the grounds:
Charles Sumner was 100 times the Senator from Massachusetts that John Quincy (I got elected because my name was) Adams ever was.
Also - Warren Rudman was easily better than either of those guys from New Hampshire two centuries ago.
My Congressman can beat up your Senator.
P.S. - this is the greatest topic ever.
Yeah, it's pretty easy when you come up and throw a guys desk over, pinning him under 400 pounds of furniture and then beat him in the head.
He was still the greatest.
As for Rudman, all I see there is that he was dead on about predicting 9/11, and that he submitted a balanced budget act. Good, but not 'great'.
Why did you leave out Sumner again?
Yeah, and the African Americans wouldn't have had to wait 80 more years for the civil rights movement.
The only thing wrong with reconstruction is that it ended. The military should have been brought in to crush the KKK. There was a fundamental lack of will.
Yay?
Damn right.
Yeah. He also was influential in creating the American Empire by favoring big big business
Really?
I thought Roosevelt and McKinley had the lock on that one.
Roosevelt, McKinley's campaign manager, Alfred T Mahan and HCL are the guys that I think of when I think of the origins of the American Century.
Sherman and other northerners did a decent job of ensuring that they would at least think twice before going into another Civil War. How many of them would say, "Hey guys, lets do the same thing we did last time that resulted in huge casualties and screwed over our states!"?
Any new secession would be crushed by the now experienced soldiers and generals. The Confederates got lucky with a few shitty generals.
There's a class offered by a law school prof called "The Civil War: An Unconstitutional War" that I really want to take.
He was also a dick, liked imperialism in general, and supported immigration restrictions like the Immigration Act.
William Jennings Bryan and Henry Clay were pretty important dudes
edit* Actually, WJB was never a Senator, was he?
Congressman.
As for Webster: People, I don't have five seats in Massachusetts. Really wish I did, because then we could do without, say, Huey Long, or John Moses.
That said, 49 other states to look at, and I think there are a couple states worth noting that we haven't gotten to yet:
*Illinois- Three-way race here between Davis, Douglas, and the guy who missed out, Richard Yates. Yates took an anti-slavery tack in a pro-slavery district and as a result missed out on a third term in his state house. Not quite enough to beat Davis (a guy that got to the Senate because the GOP was trying to steal the Hayes-Tilden election, it was about to go to the courts, Davis was deeply indepedent and incorruptible, and they couldn't leave things up to chance. So the Illinois legislature put Davis in the Senate, forcing him off the court. He was replaced by a Republican and Hayes won), and Paul Douglas (one of my favorite guys on the entire All-Star Team).
*Missouri- Probably the most lopsided race in America. Carl Schurz (coincidentially, the guy who founded my town), Harry Truman, and then everybody else. It wasn't even close.
*Mississippi- LeRoy Percy, our junior senator, perpetrated possibly the greatest pwning before pwning was invented:
He was important, but he was extremely short sighted. Specifically, he broke the Missouri Compromise and started Bleeding Kansas with his democracy theory, and he only did that because the Kansas-Nebraska territory needed to be states to have the continental railroad go through them, and the only way for it to go through Chicago (Where he and his cronies had a lot of property) was to go through those territories.
Important, I realize, but still a greedy idiot.