August 10, 1972
Page 27741
SENATOR EDMUND S. MUSKIE – A REFRESHING FIGURE IN POLITICS
Mr. STEVENSON. Mr. President, wise men in politics see the many facets of a question and are sometimes called indecisive. They are sometimes called weak because they do not rush to take positions on complex questions. They are sometimes accused of talking "over the heads of the people" because they set a high store by the intelligence of the people and the importance of an informed electorate. There is little new in this, except that the demands of the press and a one-dimensional media – TV – have pushed us farther than before into a know-nothing politics of cosmetics, capsulated, and simplistic positions, TV jingles, and campaign gimmickry. And so, Mr. President, the Senator from Maine (Mr: MUSKIE) has been for those of us who know him best a refreshing figure in our politics. He does not compromise his intellectual integrity or sacrifice a conscientious approach to serious and complex questions in order to make the evening news and then be perceived as brave and decisive. His qualities of mind and heart are those of a statesman.
The press has not been kind to Senator MUSKIE. At times it has failed to understand him, perhaps because his qualities are alien to some in a press all too accustomed now to instant gratification by the spectacular and the simplistic in American politics. Clayton LaVerdiere, of the Waterville, Maine, Morning Sentinel, does understand Senator MUSKIE. He suggests, and with evident satisfaction, that when the Democratic Party needed a vice-presidential candidate whose stature in the Nation could heal wounds and restore public confidence, the spotlight first turned to ED MUSKIE.
I ask unanimous consent that this article, published in the Sentinel of August 2, be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
POINT OF VIEW
(By Clayton LaVerdiere)
In the solitude of his Senate office in Washington, Edmund S. Muskie must be sitting back and enjoying a long overdue chuckle. He has earned it.
The man from Maine has tasted the bitterness of defeat in his bid for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency. His political fortunes and misfortunes have been dissected and evaluated in almost merciless fashion by pundits from coast to coast.
His political career has been placed under the microscope by "experts" who have never held office or who possibly couldn't be elected if they tried.
The "Monday morning quarterbacks" have criticized him for entering too many primaries.
He has been rapped on the knuckles for being indecisive, for having a short temper, for being a link with the "old politics."
He has been spanked for what he has done, or said, or thought. He has been second-guessed like few men in recent memory.
Politics is, a cruel game, they say, and apparently that makes it all right to shoot arrows into a man from all angles. Ed Muskie certainly has felt their sting in recent months.
And so the lanky Maine Senator, whose political career has spanned more than 25 years and who has tasted the sweetness of victory on so many occasions, has left the Miami Beach convention site and quietly gone back to work in Washington. He has left no bitter, stinging verbal blasts in his wake. Now comes a dramatic turn of events.
Sen. Tom Eagleton, the choice of presidential nominee George McGovern as a running mate, has come under fire and, after a tortuous period, has withdrawn his vice-presidential candidacy.
Suddenly, the spotlight shifts. It falls on several prominent Democrats, and one of them is Ed Muskie.
Syndicated columnist Mary McGrory put it this way in a recent column:
"The qualities that made him unacceptable to the new left during the primaries make him almost ideal for this desperate hour. His caution, his reluctance to take controversial stands are positive assets as second man to a leader whose advanced notions have unnerved the center of the party.
"Muskie is even better known than McGovern. No buildup would be required. The regulars who endorsed him in droves when he started out and who, as a consequence, were excluded from Miami, might come around if he asked them."
On the question of whether or not Muskie would take the bid Miss McGrory adds: "'He could have been talked into it in Miami, said an old friend. 'He was deeply hurt by being rejected by the party; it would mean everything to him if the party turned to him now.'
"The thought sends a flicker of hope through the demoralized Democrats. Muskie represents the one possibility for turning what they regard as a debacle back into a simple disaster."
Can Ed Muskie be blamed for smiling a bit as he sits back in the privacy of his Washington office?