Proxmire/Kastenmeier, the original Uma/Oprah
Former Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.) died this morning at the age of 90. He was elected to the Senate in 1957 to fill Joe McCarthy's seat, and he retired Jan. 3, 1989.
Growing up in Wisconsin, I always confused Proxmire with Rep. Bob Kastenmeier (D-Wis.), who represented my home congressional district from 1959 to 1991.
1 comments:
They were very different actually. Kastenmeier was more predictable (liberal, etc)and less accessible and Proxmire much more of a maverick. You didn't know what he'd come up with next. His Golden Fleece awards were often terrible, because he wanted the govt to support only that which was immediately useful, and left a lot of good research behind. Some researchers never recovered from his attention. He was always out there though - campaigning with the people. we shook his hand many times. He used to be driven around the state by volunteers (and stay in Motel 6 or some such placeavxdpzr), but worried about a woman volunteer because it might not look right to be in a car alone with a woman- and got criticized for that, but given the times probably was right. I wish we had both of them back!
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