Those who bemoan
divisiveness on Capitol Hill should have been in town in 1940 when Congress
debated a military draft weeks after the Nazis marched through Paris. When “Rep. Martin Sweeney of Ohio delivered a
scathing attack on the Roosevelt administration for allegedly using conscription
as a way to get the United States into the war, Rep. Beverly Vincent of
Kentucky, who was next to Sweeney, loudly muttered that he refused to ‘sit by a
traitor,’” writes historian Lynne Olson. “Sweeney swung at Vincent, who
responded with a sharp right to the jaw that sent Sweeney staggering. It was, said the House doorkeeper, the best
punch thrown by a member of Congress in 50 years.” Both men were
Democrats. –Leon Taylor tayloralmaty@gmail.com
Good reading
Lynne Olson. Those
angry days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s fight over World War II,
1939-1941. Random House. 2013.
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