CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - SENATE
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP75-00149R000500010024-3
Release Decision:
RIPPUB
Original Classification:
K
Document Page Count:
1
Document Creation Date:
December 15, 2016
Document Release Date:
April 2, 2004
Sequence Number:
24
Case Number:
Publication Date:
June 23, 1967
Content Type:
OPEN
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CIA-RDP75-00149R000500010024-3.pdf | 193.35 KB |
Body:
Approved For Release 2004/04/08 : Cl
S S722
Dodd's weaknesses and leaned over back-
,irds to be fair to him, nevertheless they
were airtight in the findings they made.
Sen. John Stennis of Mississippi, the Dem-
acratlc Chairman, we have reported to be "a
courtly philosopher," with such a reputa-
tion for fairness that he has been in the
presiding officer's chair more than Alben
Barkley. No noisy demagogue like his pred-
ecessor Bilbo, he says that the wage-hour
law was a boon to the South by raising its
economic level .. , At a prcyer breakfast
where Democrats and Republicans forgot re-
agious differences as w911 as political ones,
Stennis sounded the keynote by calling for
a return to spirituality.
This column has sometimes reported critically regarding Sen. Stennis' position bn
civil rights, but never regarding his honesty
and fairness.
n `'.MON TEACHER
Sen. Wai:.,. Bennett, Republican co-
chairman of the ethics committee, is mar-
ried to the daughter of the late Heber Grant,
president of the Mormon Church. Bennett
for many years taught in the Mormon Sun-
day School of the Chevy Chase Chapel and
today, though he no longer teaches, is a reg-
ular attendant.
We have reported that Bennett is the for-
mer president of the National Manufacturers
Association and follows the conservative
policies of that organization. He has been
opposed to most of the economic policies of
the Truman, Kennedy and Johnson Admin-
istrations, but he has been consistent and
honest in that opposition.
Sen. John Sherman Cooper (R-Ky.) is a
former Ambassador to India, where he did
an outstanding job, and has held many spe-
cial diplomatic posts.
We have reported that Sen. Cooper follows
a broad bipartisan policy on foreign affairs
and frequently has been called in by Demo-
cratic Presidents for consultation. He was
especially useful in advising Mr. Kennedy
how to handle the Berlin problem at the
very start of his Administration, though Mr,
Kennedy spurned the advice.
Sen. Mike Monroney (D-Okla.) has served
in Congress longer than any other member
of the ethics committee. As a young mem-
ber of the House of Representatives, he re-
ceived the Collier's Distinguished Service
Award for his work in attempting to stream.
line legislative procedures. He was coauthor
of the congressional reorganization bill with
the late Sen. Robert La Follette and more re-
cently sponsored a bill for Senate reorgani-
zation.
As a young Congressman, Monroney had
the courage to vote against an oil price in-
crease though he comes from a big oil-pro
ducing state, and against the farm bloc on
subsidies though Oklahoma 'is also an im-
portant agricultural state.
UP FROM RANKS
Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy (P-Minn.) is an-
other legislator who came up from the ranks
in the House of Representatives. We have
described him as "having a spotless family
life . . . studied for the priesthood, has the
confidence of labor and farmers, is the idol
of liberals in both the House and the Sen-
ate."
Generally he has tried to plug tax loop.
holes from his vantage point inside the Sen-
ate Finance Committee and has fought a
/courageous war against Central. Intelligence
Y Agency secrecy.
McCarthy is an old personal friend of Sen.
Dodd, and at one time proposed secret rather
than public Dodd hearings; in the end, he
put Senate ethics ahead of personal friend.
ship and voted to recommend Dodds cen-
sure.
` Sen. James B. Pearson (R-Kan.) is a new-
comer to the Senate and the youngest mem-
ber of the ethics committee. However, he has,
also been one of the most forthright in
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - SENATE ' June 23, 1967
cross-examining witnesses and one of the
toughest in urging that the Senate maintain
a high standard of ethics.
Originally a Virginian, Pearson served in
Kansas during the war, liked it and returned
to live there and engage in Republican poll-
tics. He has just been reelected for a full
6-year term.
These are the men who spent more than a
year conscientiously hearing testimony and
carefully scrutinizing the record of their
colleague from Connecticut. They are not
susceptible to political blackmail, and we
resent Sen. Long's'implicatlon that we might
resort to such tactics.
(From the Washington Post, June 18, 19671
POLIi'CAL HEIRS IN DODO CASE: Huz LONC'S
SON AND BILDo's SucCzssoa ARE SENATE
OPPONENTS rN ET.AICs TRIAL
(By Drew Pearson)
The man who probably came closest to be-
coming an American dictator during this
century was the late Sen. Huey Long of
Louisiana. And the man who was his cohort
and colleague in dominating the neighbor-
ing state of Mississippi was the late Sen.
Theodore Bilbo.
Today, Russell Long, son of Huey, and
Sen. John Stennis, who replaced Bilbo, are
battling it out on the Senate floor as the
defender and accuser of another Senator
charged with a conflict of 'interest-Tom
.Dodd of Connecticut. It's one of the most
Important debates of this century.
When Russell Long first was elected to the
Senate one day short of the age of 30, It was
said that he took after his mother, a strict
disciplinarian, Today, Russell seems to be
veering more and more toward the character-
istics of his delightful and unpredictable
father,
His father, elected during the height of the
Hoover depression, was never happy unless
he held the center of the stage. He made a
production of everything, from a Senate
speech to mixing salad dressing or getting
dressed in the morning. He used to call one
of his bodyguards, Murray Rodin, to get him
the exact color shoes to match his brown tie,
as he held press conferences while showering
in the morning.
He would come to dine at my house in
Georgetown, accompanied by three body-
guards. He left one in the street, one in the
garden and one came inside. When the salad
was served, Huey would demand that he mix
.the dressing. For 20 minutes he would call
for rare pepper and spices, lemons and olive
oil, all the time performing the gestures of a
high priest at a sacred ritual.
Huey, who preached "every man a king,"
had a tremendous following among the red-
necks of Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.
He was killed by an assassin's bullet in Sep-
the afternoon. Russell becomes more and
.more loquacious' as he sips more and more
bourbon.
Sen. Long's protagonist in the Dodd debate
is stern, solemn, sedate John Stennis of Mis-
sissippi, chairman of the Ethics Committee.
Bilbo was forced out of the Senate under
circumstances somewhat similar to the facts
in the case of Tom Dodd. This column re-
vealed on Oct. 26, 1946, that war contractors
had built for Sen. Biblo an artificial lake,
with an Island in the middle, constructed a
dream house on the Island, put furniture in
the house, bought the Senator a Cadillac, and
contributed $25,000.
In return, Bilbo had secured for them
$3,527,263.39 in war contracts, chiefly at Key
Field and Keesler Field in Mississippi.
After the column was published. Bilbo was
asked to step aside when the Senate re-
convened in January, 1947, and he was never
permitted to take his seat.
Some Senators are puzzled over why Long
has become such an impassioned, uncontrol-
lable defender of Dodd. Russell is not a close
friend of Dodd's. Their two states have little
in common. Yet Russell makes speeches de-
fending Dodd on any and every occasion.
Speaking before the building trades unions
at the Washington Hilton Hotel last week,
Russell delivered his usual impassioned plea
for Dodd. He called Dodd a victim of perse-
cution, unfairly treated, and a man who
would stick by his friends. ?
"I'm not going to turn my back on Dodd,"
proclaimed Long. "He's my friend, and he
can be your friend. He'll stick by his friends."
Long appeared to be insinuating that Dodd
might help the building trades unions in
their current drive to abolish Section 8B4b
of the Taft-Hartley Act, which bans sec-
ondary boycotts.
This ban has been used indirectly to force
the building trades unions to admit Negroes.
One notable case took place when the St.
Louts Gateway Arch was being rushed to
completion; and the Interior Department, in
charge of national shrines and monuments,
undertook to get Negro plumbers employed
in building the visitors' center.
The contractor at first said he had tried
to hire Negroes but couldn't find any, When
the Interior Department insisted, he finally
employed Elijah Smith, a small Negro con.,
tractor. Whereupon all the building trades.
unions walked off the job, shutting down
the entire project. Elijah Smith's plumbers,
belonged to the "Congress of Independent
Unions," not to the building trades unions.
The Interior Department immediately in-
voked section 8B4b before the National Labor'
Relations Board, which found that the build-
ing trades stoppages was a secondary boy-
cott. It ordered the unions back to work.
They complied. But since then the build..,
,ing trades unions have been trying harder
than ever to abolish section 8B4b Taft-
Hartley.
Mr. MANSFIELD. Mr. President, does
that complete action on the resolution?
Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I think the
Senate is entitled to hear from me, if the
majority leader will yield to me.
Mr. MANSFIELD. Yes, I yield. ?
tember, 11935, just as he reached for more
power.
Today, his son, the junior Senator from
Louisiana, has developed his father's rotund
stomach, his manner of flailing the air with
Jlis arms when he talks, and his habit of
walking all over the Senate floor. During the
Dodd debate, Russell sat beside Albert
Deutsch, the New Orleans attorney appointed
to defend Dodd, then got up to go sit with
,the Republicans, then interrupted the
Speaker with a question. Finally, lie walked
out of the room comically shaking his head.
Up to a point, Russell has followed his
father's Robin Hood strategy of soaking the
rich and helping the poor. But when it comes
to oil and its tremendous tax concessions.'
Russell votes right down the line for oil.
He is a stockholder In the prosperous "Win-
or-Lose Oil Company," with valuable off-
shore oil concessions.
Russell has his father's sense of humor,
his twinkling eyes, his restless energy. But
be has not -inherited his father's ability to
bold pie liquor. As senate sessions wear ,into
Mr. DODD. I shall not delay the Sen
ate. I have never tried to do so. I am
grateful to those who have expressed
some confidence in my character, in any
event. I said this morning, I believe now,
I shall continue to believe, that history
will justify my conduct and my char-
acter.
I want to repeat what I said this
morning. I am not bitter toward anyone
they all did what they thought was right
within, their -lights. I want' them. to go
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