Carlson: Where have the senators gone?
At the risk of dating myself, some readers may recall an old folk song by Pete Seeger and made more famous by Peter, Paul and Mary.
The first line is:
"Where have all the flowers gone
Long-time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?"
It is a poignant plea for something lost that never will be recovered.
Sometimes on weekends, my wife and I prowl through thrift stores and old bookstores. Recently, while cruising through a thrift place in Kellogg, I came across a tear sheet of a page from the Idaho Statesman from Sept. 1, 1912. The tear sheet was a full-page write-up by the Statesman's Washington, D.C., news bureau on the considerable legislative accomplishments of "the Lion of Idaho," Sen. William E. Borah, during the five-plus years he had served in the Senate.
The old Pete Seeger song ran through my mind with a slight variation in the words:
"Where have Idaho's senators gone
Long time passing?
Where have the statesman gone
Long time ago?" More here.