Sen. Proxmire RIP

Sen. William Proxmire died today of Alzheimer's Disease at the age of 90. Proxmire was first elected to the Senate while I was in High School in Milwaukee and I can remember my father railing that Proxmire was a carpetbagger, having been a Law Professor at Northwestern Law School in Evanston, Ill.

Nonetheless, his family had Wisconsin roots, having earned a fortune during the 19th century logging boom in northern Wisc.

WARNING: TWO BORING PERSONAL ANECDOTES

After entering the State Dept in 1969, I went to meet the two Senators from my home state and I remember vividly my meeting with Proxmire as he had recently undergone much publicized hair transplants which appeared single file like cornrows marching across his bald forepate. Proxmire himself showed polite interest in my assignment.

His staff afterward recommended I send them a sample of my writing which just a couple of weeks ago going through my papers I found in an envelope returned to me with a cover letter from his chief of staff.

After I left the State Department, I married a Legislative Assistant to a Democratic Senator. Proxmire's female LA was a good friend of my wife and works until this day for Sen. Herbert Kohl. [Before marrying an LA from Sen. Sarbanes, I dated an LA of Sen. Gaylord Nelson, recently passed away]

At any rate, I found myself using Proxmire's own personal office on the Hill doing projects for the Democratic Party while the Senator was out of town or on foreign travel. His staff's nickname for the Senator was "The Dummy." They explained that he was a bit too easy to manipulate.

With Wisconsin's effective Russ Feingold cranking up for a Presidential race in 2008, it is easy to forget the days of the doldrums of Wisconsin Senatorial representation.
Nil de mortuis nisi bono so I should end on a high note. Proxmire may not have been an effective legislator, but he fought, in his maverick fashion, a highly publicized campaign against government waste called THE GOLDEN FLEECE AWARD given each month to an especially preposterous example of legislative pork. He also made much of not spending any money except a pittance on his re-election campaigns.

Nowadays, his brand of eccentric individualism would be laughed at as hopelessly corny. With porkomaniac Ted Stevens of Alaska as President pro Tem of the Senate, he might not even be allowed to bestow his awards for presumptive peculation were he around to do so.