The man who, it can be argued, single-handedly saved this country from "Supreme Court Associate Justice Robert Bork" and the man who introduced me and a small crowd of well-wishers to then-First Lady wannabe (in Sept '92), Hillary Clinton, in the side parking lot of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in B'ham, Senator Howell Heflin, has passed away at age 83.
Some of you may remember that the Judiciary Committee vote on Robert Bork was "down to the wire," and many speculated on "which way" Sen. Heflin would vote. When he came out against Bork, publically opining that Bork's "proclivity for the unusual" was part of what influenced him to vote "No," the Bork nomination was "toast."
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from the AP article:
"Heflin, a Democrat, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978 and retired after 18 years, serving on the Judiciary and Ethics committees and the panel that investigated the Iran-Contra scandal. He was viewed as the chamber's top authority on He headed the Senate Ethics Committee for agesethics, heading the ethics panel for nearly a decade when Democrats were in the majority."
I remember when, in the midst of the Ollie North imbroglio, and many Republicans trying to obfuscate and play "smoke and mirrors" games with some of Ollie's propagandistic slide/video presentations, Sen. Heflin lashed out and rather pointedly suggested that they project a copy of the Constitution on the wall of the Chamber all let everybody read that for a change!
In Alabama he will always be remembered as an excellent attorney and jurist, a former
Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice, back before the days of Roy Moore Wowserism.
Judge Helfin, thank you and rest in peace.
BenGoshi
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