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ALMOST PRESIDENT: HUBERT HORATIO HUMPHREY, PART II

© John S. Cooper

In 1948, Humphrey became his party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate. He was running against incumbent Senator Joseph Ball, a strongly anti-labor politician who had helped sponsor the Taft-Hartley Act that was hated by organized labor. In that year, he was also a delegate to the Democratic Convention. It was there that, in a now-famous speech, Humphrey spoke in favor of the controversial civil rights plank. Humphrey declared to the convention, “The time has arrived for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of states rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights!” Some southern states left the convention and formed the Dixiecrat Party, which ran Strom Thurmond for President. Humphrey became very popular in Minnesota for his courageous stand in favor of civil rights, and was elected to the U.S. Senate.

Humphrey’s courageous stand for a strong civil rights plank in the 1948 Democratic platform earned him strong support from the liberal Minneapolis voters, and his opposition to the Taft-Hartley Act and support of the Marshall Plan won him the support of farmers and labor. Humphrey won a landslide victory over incumbent, conservative Senator Ball. Humphrey became the first democrat elected from Minnesota to the U.S. Senate since 1901.

Humphrey entered the Senate the same way he entered everything else, at full speed. He already had a reputation as a strong champion of civil rights, but also as an impulsive, long-winded, sanctimonious, self-righteous liberal. Humphrey was used to discussing policy matters openly and candidly, which was not the way of the Senate. He quickly ran afoul of the “good old boy” Senate leadership. Senate leaders considered Humphrey rigid, uncompromising, undignified and impulsive, and he found himself ostracized for his brash and abrasive comments. In later years, Humphrey described these first years as the most miserable in his life because of his ineffectiveness and ostracism. But Humphrey was also quick and intelligent, and realized what he had to do. He worked hard to master the details of the legislative process as well as the ways and traditions of the Senate. By the time he ran for re-election in 1954, Humphrey had become part of the “Inner Club” of the Senate.

The worst of Humphrey’s first missteps was on February 20, 1950. Humphrey decided to take on powerful Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. of Virginia. Byrd was, among his other positions, chairman of The Joint Committee on the Reduction of Nonessential Federal Expenditures.” Humphrey rose to make his attack on the committee while Byrd was away, which was, in all likelihood, an unintentional breech of courtesy and decorum. Humphrey implied that Byrd’s committee was hypocrisy in that the committee was itself a nonessential and wasteful expenditure and a waste of the taxpayers’ money. He demanded the committee be abolished. His speech was made with a great deal of emotional intensity and righteous indignation, clearly an over-reaction to the subject at hand.

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