Many of you will not remember Maryland's Sen. Mac Mathias. Mac was a Republican - and he was (perhaps with Lowell Weiker) one of the most reliably liberal Senators in the U.S. Senate. The Washington Post reports that he died today at age 87. Liberal Republican? WTF? Actually at one time, in the 1960's and 1970's, it wasn't that uncommon. More below the fold.
Following is a link to the WaPo article.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
I worked for Sen. Mathias when I was in college, in the early 80s. The Post reports that he was senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee, but the early-Reagan Republicans wouldn't let him chair that committee, because he was too liberal, so they gave the committee to Strom Thurmond. Actually, I remember it differently - that he was senior on Foreign Relations, but they wouldn't let him have it, so they gave it to Jessie Helms. (Which I think is right, because Thurmond was more senior than Mathias.) Anyway, they gave Mathias the Senate Rules Committee, which (unlike the House Rules Commmittee) is essentially powerless. What did Mac do on Senate Rules? He publicized the fact that Senators were spending millions of taxpayer dollars on free "franked" Senate mailings - in many cases, more money than their election opponents were spending on their entire campaigns - a total incumbent protection racket. (Texas Sen. Phil Gramm was number one in the whole Senate.) Every Senator hated the fact that Mathias was disclosing these amounts, and as soon as the Democrats took control of the Senate (in 1986) they dicontinued these disclosures. (Full disclosure: I worked on this project for Mac, although he wouldn't have known who I was.) In the time I worked for him, I can't remember a Senate vote where I disagreed with him.
In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't compare to his opposition to Vietnam, his opposition to Watergate, his votes against Carswell and Hainsworth for the U.S. Supreme Court, or his advocacy for civil rights, the environment (thanks to him we have the C&O Canal towpath) and abortion rights. But he was a truly decent and honorable man, at a time when many Democrats were not. The Republicans have long since run anyone like Mac out of the party - but it bears remembering that once upon a time, it was the Republicans who supported civil rights and the environment. Boy does that seem like a long time ago. Anyway, Mac lost the battle for his party: he endorsed Obama in 2008 (I didn't even realize he was still alive when I saw his WaPo op-ed just before the election), and he opposed the Iraq war. But the fact that he lost his party that doesn't make him any less of an admirable and historical figure.