Republicans Settle In For The Long Haul
They liked their bourbon and late-night poker but most of all, they liked power. They came to Washington from the South of kudzu, cotton and Bibles.
And stayed to rule, seemingly forever.
They were Southern Democrats, drawling, tough-fisted men who ran the U.S. Senate through war and peace like their own plantation.
When Sam Nunn came up from Georgia as a 34-year-old whippersnapper, the Senate was run by Confederate bulls who took no sass from anyone, including presidents.
There was Sam Ervin, William Fulbright, John Sparkman, John Stennis, Herman Talmadge, Russell Long and a half-dozen others who in 1973 made the Senate a Dixie club.
The Southern strategy: “Elect ‘em young, keep ‘em until they’re old, mean and powerful.”
Yep, Dixie politicians were like whiskey, best when aged mellow.
Hadn’t Nunn’s great-uncle Carl Vinson served 50 years?
And Nunn’s Georgia icon, Sen. Richard Russell, been around for 40 years?
Now that Sam Nunn, a mere tadpole of 57, says he’s quitting, the dominance of the Southern bulls is history.
“I know in my heart it’s time,” Nunn said. “I don’t want to be recalled by the Grim Voter or the Grim Reaper.”
Sure, Nunn’s style was more cerebral than the old, segregationist mules. But he’s last of a breed - Democratic powerhouses who kept the Dixie money flowing for military bases, defense factories, cotton and peanuts and tobacco.
In truth, the Solid South that sent Democrats to control Washington for a half-century is dead as moonshine liquor, cotton gins and Confederate parades. By 1996, there may be a lone Senate Democrat from three states of the Old Confederacy: Arkansas, Louisiana and Florida.
Slick and aggressive, Republicans have conquered the South like Sherman and Grant. Instead of Sam Nunn, you have Georgia’s Rep. Newt Gingrich with his futuristic prattle. Or Mississippi’s smooth Trent Lott, who may next run the Senate.
That’s big trouble for Bill Clinton, who can write off the South as a 1996 wasteland. Indeed, many blame the Democrats’ Dixie demise on Clinton.
“A lot has to do with Clinton’s unpopularity,” said Merle Black, political analyst at Emory University. “Despite his move to the center, he’s perceived as liberal.”
That’s hanging undeserved goat horns on Clinton. The South began turning its back on Democrats while he was in knee pants.
One pivotal moment came in the early 1960s, when racial tension had a Southern accent. George Wallace was thundering, “Segregation now, tomorrow, forever!” Along came Lyndon Johnson, hellbent on passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
That night Johnson said glumly to press aide Bill Moyers, “I think we delivered the South to Republicans for your lifetime.”
LBJ was wrong about Vietnam but flat right about the South.
Sure, Nunn denies the Republican juggernaut ran him out of the Senate - “a factor, not the dominant factor.” But sitting in the No. 2 slot, while Strom Thurmond ran the Armed Services panel, hastened Nunn’s farewell.
My hunch: Nunn began thinking of leaving in 1993 when Clinton failed to offer him the Secretary of State job. I suspect he hid his disappointment. Lord knows, Nunn would have been more dynamic than Warren Christopher.
“It was never seriously discussed, never in the cards,” Nunn said levelly on PBS.
When eight Democrats quit the Senate, including luminaries Bill Bradley, Paul Simon, James Exon and Bennett Johnston, something’s going on. Some are weary of bucking the Republican tide. Others are tired of the 1990s go-go treadmill.
“The pace has become intense,” said Nunn. “People live on airplanes. Senate rules make scheduling miserable.”
Nunn, unbeatable in Georgia, didn’t add: Raising money for $20 million campaigns is a horror. Yet no one dares change the system.
No doubt Clinton mourns Nunn’s lost clout even if the two smart, stubborn Dixie-bred pols often butted heads. Nunn fought Clinton on his move to allow homosexuals in the military, his defense budget, his health reform. But he quickly boarded a plane with Jimmy Carter and Gen. Colin Powell when Clinton needed him in Haiti.
Maybe Nunn never met a B-2 bomber or missile he didn’t love. But he was a serious, thoughtful senator, the guru of Pentagon budgets and nuclear arcana. His intellect will be missed in the era of sound-bite showmen.
Somehow he thinks Democrats can win back the South. “There’s no void in American politics. We’ve got to go back to the center. The party that resists its extremist wings will win. Or we’ll have a third party.”
For once, Sam Nunn may be whistling Dixie. LBJ was right 31 years ago. In the land of kudzu and sour mash, Republicans will reign for a lifetime. They know the code words.
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