Steve Flowers: The legend of Senator John Sparkman
In my 2015 book, Of Goats and Governors: Six Decades of Colorful Alabama Political Stories, I have a Chapter entitled “Alabama’s Three Greatest Senators.” I chronicle the lives and accomplishments of Richard Shelby, Lister Hill, and John Sparkman. Last week, we gave you the history of Lister Hill. This week, we will give you a brief story of the legacy of the great John Sparkman. Hill and Sparkman served as a tandem in Washington for more than 20 years and were respected giants on Capitol Hill. Our Hill-Sparkman team was unsurpassed in power and prestige from 1946 to 1970. They were admired not only in Alabama and the South but throughout the nation. They were powerful and extremely effective for our state but also portrayed a good image as erudite southern gentlemen. John Sparkman served an amazing 32 years in the United States Senate from 1946 through 1978. He served 12 years in the U.S. Congress from Huntsville and the Tennessee Valley prior to being elected to the Senate. He made his presence known as Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which at the time oversaw housing for America. Furthermore, he was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 1952. John Sparkman is the Father of the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville. His legacy lives on today with the growth and aerospace prominence of our Rocket City. Our fastest-growing and most economically prosperous metropolitan area began its presence in the 1960s because of John Sparkman. In fact, the city should probably be referred to as Sparkmanville rather than Huntsville. Senator Sparkman was not born into privilege like Senator Hill. Sparkman was born and raised on an unpretentious tenant farm near Hartselle in Morgan County. He had ten brothers and sisters. In 1917, by making a cotton crop and netting $75.00, he was able to enroll in the University of Alabama. At Alabama, he was editor of the “Crimson and White,” and like Senator Hill, he was elected President of the Student Body at the Capstone. At the same time, he worked his way through school, shoveling coal and feeding furnaces. After graduating from the University of Alabama School of Law, he practiced law in Huntsville for 12 years before being elected to Congress in 1936. Like Hill, he supported President Theodore Roosevelt’s New Deal. The passage of the Tennessee Valley Authority (“TVA”) Act was a tremendous boost for his North Alabama Tennessee Valley district. The TVA Act transformed North Alabama. In 1946, he had served his North Alabama congressional district well for over a decade and was elected to the U.S. Senate. Senator John Bankhead had died in office, and Sparkman won the seat handily with strong backing of labor unions who were in their heyday in Alabama politics. Senator Sparkman rose to power and prominence in the Senate. He made his mark as the father of federal housing for the poor. He became Chairman of the very powerful Senate Banking Committee, as well as its Housing Subcommittee. Sparkman was the author of practically every major housing bill since World War II and is also known as the father of the Small Business Administration. He was also the ranking majority member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. For more than two decades, John Sparkman and Lister Hill served together as a team, the most powerful and respected tandem in Washington. While some Southern Senators were making racist speeches on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Hill and Sparkman refused to race bait. They preferred to quietly bring home the bacon to Alabama with dignity. They had a team approach to helping Alabama, and their voting records on major issues that faced the nation were identical. Both men served as president of the student body of the University of Alabama, and both were products of what is known as the political machine at the University of Alabama. John Sparkman was a giant in the United States Senate and an icon in Alabama political history. See you next week. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.
Steve Flowers: Richard Shelby coming home
Our iconic Senior United States Senator, Richard Shelby, will walk out of the Senate chambers in Washington, D.C., next week and come home to retirement in Tuscaloosa. History will reveal Senator Shelby as Alabama’s greatest U.S. Senator, especially when it comes to bringing home the bacon to the Heart of Dixie. To say Shelby is the greatest is saying a mouthful because we have had some great ones. Shelby will rest with the likes of John Bankhead, John Sparkman, Lister Hill, and Howell Heflin. He has served longer in the Senate than any Alabamian in state history – 36 years. He served eight years in Congress before beginning his senate tenure in 1986. Many of you have perceived, and correctly so that I admire and appreciate the accomplishments of Senator Shelby. A good many of you will be glad to see me stop writing such glowing things about him. Over the years, many of you have accused me of actually being his press secretary. My favorite restaurant is the historic Bright Star in Bessemer. A good many Tuscaloosans, especially older ones, Shelby’s contemporaries, and friends and neighbors, drive up to eat at the Bright Star. Invariably, they will ask me to come over to their table to visit. They always say, “you sure do like Richard Shelby.” Many of them are familiar with the fact that we are also friends. We have, indeed, been political friends and confidantes for close to four decades. This does not take away from the fact that, in my humble opinion, he is Alabama’s greatest Senator. The facts speak for themselves. In Washington, Shelby is considered royalty with omnipotent power. He is treated like a king. Shelby has served in the Senate alongside eight different presidents. He has been more powerful than the last three. He has controlled the federal purse strings. Therefore, national political pundits know the political golden rule; ‘those that have the gold make the rules.’ Presidents, congressional leaders, and especially powerful lobbyists treat Shelby with deference akin to royalty. When he enters a room, people stare and stand up. This is especially true when he enters any famous Washington restaurant. The maître de has assigned him the best table. When he enters the fine dining establishment, every head turns to see which million-dollar-a-year lobbyist has been bestowed the honor of dining and visiting with the king, Richard Shelby. Other lobbyists will reserve a table next to him to simply be able to say they sat next to him. However, when Shelby comes home to Tuscaloosa next month to the home he and his wife Annette have shared in the Druid City for over 50 years, his peers and neighbors will just call him Dick Shelby. “A setting sun sets off very little heat,” a “prophet is not recognized in his own country,” “familiarity breeds contempt,” and “Alabama is just a big front porch,” all of these admonitions will ring true for ole Shelby. However, I do not think he will mind. Even though he has lived his life as a public person – eight years in the state senate, eight years in Congress, and thirty-six years in the U.S. Senate – he is a private person and really enjoys his time with Annette. He will very much enjoy his anonymity. This coming home to rest in obscurity has played out throughout the years with our Washington giants. Old timers in Jackson County say that the legendary, powerful Tennessee Valley Congressman, Bob Jones, in his retirement, would go into a restaurant to eat in Scottsboro by himself, and nobody would hardly know him. I was friends with Senator Howell Heflin, who we all called “Judge.” After 18 years in the Senate, Judge came home to the Quad Cities. He would ask me to come up to visit with him and talk politics, which I gladly did. We would go to breakfast or early lunch at a downtown restaurant, which doubled as a coffee club gathering place in Tuscumbia. We would walk in, and they would nod, and he would speak, but they would not make a fuss over the former, powerful U.S. Senator. In fact, I am not sure some of them even knew who he was. Tuscaloosa is a bigger place than Scottsboro or Tuscumbia, so Shelby will be private. In the meantime, Alabamians will soon begin to realize what immense power Shelby had in Washington. See you next week. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at: www.steveflowers.us.
Steve Flowers: Special Alabamians
Under the title “Alabama is a Big Front Porch,” made famous by the legendary Alabama storyteller Kathryn Tucker Wyndham, I will continue to share some personal political stories with you this week. As many of you know, I have been friends with our iconic senior U.S. Senator, Richard Shelby, for close to four decades. History will reveal Senator Shelby as Alabama’s greatest U.S. Senator, and folks, that is saying a mouth full because we have had some great ones. We have had a cadre of great Senators, including Lister Hill, John Sparkman, John Bankhead, and Howell Heflin, along with Shelby. As Chairman of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Shelby has brought untold hundreds of millions of dollars home to Alabama. It would take a book or volumes of books to tell the story of Shelby’s prowess at bringing home the bacon to his beloved state. He is completing 36 years in the Senate this year. Two of my favorite Alabamians and loyal friends are former Congressman and now University of South Alabama President, Jo Bonner and one of the finest ladies in the state, Dora James of Opelika. I visit with each of these two friends almost weekly. They graciously read the column and give me feedback. Jo Bonner epitomizes the adage of being a true southern gentleman. He is admired and beloved all over the state, more than he can imagine. Dora James epitomizes a true southern lady. She is admired and revered in Lee County. She is a true philanthropist and modest, kind and genuinely sweet person. About seven years ago, she hosted book signings for me at Auburn University and in Opelika that attracted several hundred folks at each, not because of me but because of her. Speaking of memorable book signing events, the people of Jasper and Walker County hosted a large event at which Congressman Robert Aderholt was gracious enough to travel down from Washington to introduce me. Over the years, I have enjoyed a special closeness and connection to the folks in Jasper/Walker County who read my column in The Daily Mountain Eagle. They have a rich political heritage with the Bankheads, Carl Elliott, Tom Bevill, and others. To show how old I am getting and how long I have been writing this column, it seems that every state senator I know says, “Please do not write something bad about me because my mama reads your column religiously every week and has for decades.” Speaking of books, I had the opportunity to meet and visit with the legendary author of To Kill A Mockingbird, Nelle Harper Lee. Folks in Monroeville, who knew her well from their generation, called her “Nelle.” Even though she had an apartment in New York that she purchased when her book came out in the 1960’s, Nelle Harper Lee lived her entire life in Monroeville. She lived with her sister, Alice, who was a good bit older than Nelle. I am told that Alice was the first female lawyer in Alabama. She was one of the most prominent lawyers in Monroeville and lived to be over 100. Alice and Nelle were neither married. Nelle Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, is one of the five most read and purchased books in history. I am told by Monroeville old timers that it is a total allegory. It is simply a story of Harper Lee growing up in Monroeville. All the characters are real, even Boo Radley. One day a few years ago, Harper Lee sent word to me that she enjoyed and read my column weekly, in the Monroe Journal and would like to meet me. I journeyed to Monroeville, and we exchanged greetings, and she gave me a signed copy of her book. I thanked her and told her that it was bought and read by quite a few more people than mine. She was a person of very few words and renowned for her privacy and reclusiveness. The only thing she said to me, substantively, was, “You are taller than you look like in your picture.” I thanked her for her time and the visit and book. When I got back into my car, I called my older daughter, who is a lawyer in Birmingham, and said, “I know when I die you are going to just pile up my books and throw them away, but there is one you might want to save.” We will continue with more stories next week. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.
Steve Flowers: Seniority vs. Senility
Our senior senator, Richard Shelby, will be remembered as Alabama’s most prominent senator when he retires next December. Folks, that’s saying a lot because we have had a host of prominent men serve Alabama in the United States Senate, such as giants like Lister Hill, John Sparkman, and John Bankhead. However, history will record that none of these above senators brought the federal dollars back home to Alabama that Shelby has procured. Seniority is omnipotent in Washington. It is everything, and Senator Shelby has it. He is in his 35th year in the U.S. Senate. He has already broken Senator Sparkman’s 32-year record of longevity in Alabama history and at the end of his term next year he will have served a record 36 years in the Senate. In addition, Shelby was the U.S. Congressman for the old 7th Congressional district for eight years. Shelby has not only been the most prolific funneler of federal dollars to Alabama in our state’s history but he could also be considered one of the most profound movers and shakers of federal funds to their state in American history. His only rival was the late Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Senator Byrd, who was in his ninth term as a senator when he died at 92, funneled an estimated $10 billion to his constituents during his 51 years in the Senate. The obvious question asked by observers of Washington politics is, “Are some of our most powerful senators too old to function cognitively?” I can attest to you that I know Senator Richard Shelby personally and he is the most cognitively alert and healthy 87-year-old man I have ever seen. He works out daily and has the memory of an elephant. In fact, his mental and cognitive abilities are similar to someone 30 years his junior. He very well could run and serve another 6-year term. However, he will be 88 at the end of his term. Shelby is one of five octogenarians serving in the Senate. California’s Dianne Feinstein is the oldest sitting senator at 88. She is followed by Iowa’s Charles “Chuck” Grassley who turns 88 next month. Shelby is the third at 87. James Inhofe of Oklahoma and Senator Pat Leahy of Vermont are 81. By the way, Grassley and Leahy are Shelby’s closest allies in the Senate. The question becomes, “How old is too old to be a U.S. senator?” According to the Congressional Research Service, the average age of senators at the beginning of this year is 64-years. At some point voters have to weigh, “Is my senator too old to perform the duties of the office or does the weight and power of their seniority and the benefit of their influence to the state outweigh their energy and cognizance?” Voters tend to go with experience and seniority over youth. Senator Feinstein has been the most widely discussed current senator for a decline in health. Liberals believe she was too conciliatory during Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearing. There is a pervasive whispering campaign about Feinstein’s alleged cognitive decline and the Democratic senior leadership has indeed quietly removed her as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. It was common knowledge and apparent that Senator Shelby’s predecessor as Chairman of Appropriations, Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi, was not very cognitive in his last years in the Senate although he was younger, chronically. The most notable example of possibly staying too long is probably the story of legendary Senator Strom Thurman of South Carolina. In 2003 Strom Thurman retired at the age of 100 after 48 years in the Senate. It was no secret that his staff did everything for him during his last six-year term. Our founding fathers created a minimum age for serving in the U.S. House or Senate but did not address a maximum. The owner of Grub’s Pharmacy used by many on Capitol Hill in Washington raised eyebrows in 2017 when he revealed he routinely sent Alzheimer’s medication to Capitol Hill. There are continuing attempts to pass a Constitutional Amendment to limit the terms of Congressmen and Senators. Republicans run on the issue of term limits. It was part of their contract with America Agenda in 1994. Alabamians need to consider being for term limits in 2022 because it comes down to the old adage of whose ox is being gourd. We in Alabama are going to be up the proverbial creek without a paddle after Shelby. He is our power in Washington. We need to all jump on the term limit bandwagon beginning next year. See you next week. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at: www.steveflowers.us.
Steve Flowers: Lay of the land as Senate race enters stretch
As the horse race for our open U.S. Senate seat heads down the stretch, let’s look at the lay of the land. All indications are that Roy Moore and Luther Strange are headed for a one-two finish Aug. 15 and ultimately a runoff Sept. 26. The winner of that match will be our junior U. S. Senator for the next three years of the Jeff Sessions’ seat term. The short window for the campaign helps Moore and Strange. They both have name identification and have run several successful campaigns for significant statewide offices Moore has worked the rural areas of the state quietly without much money. Luther Strange has bought heavy TV time in the Birmingham media market hoping to turn out upscale suburban Republicans. A combination of polls as we head around the curve and into the last leg of the race has Moore at 30, Strange at 28 and Mo Brooks at 18. The caveat to remember is that turnout is critical. Moore’s 30 percent will show up. Therefore, his final vote tally Aug. 15 could be higher than 30. A poll is a picture of the entire electorate. The poll that actually counts is the poll Aug. 15 and it is comprised of those that showed up to cast their ballot. Congressman Mo Brooks has the best chance to upset one of the two frontrunners. He represents the vote rich Tennessee Valley in Congress. He is the only viable candidate from that neck of the woods. He is a member of the right-wing Freedom Caucus in Congress. If that ultra conservative group has a grassroots fundraising organization and they raise Mo some money, he could surprise and overcome Luther. There are two descriptions I like to use when assessing a U.S. Senator and the script they seek as your senator. Sen. Richard Shelby is the ultimate caretaker. He has proven to be the greatest U.S. Senator in Alabama history. Over the past 30 years, he has brought home the bacon. He has also voted conservatively. In fact, if you compare the voting records of Shelby and Sessions they would be identical. However, Jeff Sessions would be categorized as an ideologue. He was an ultra-conservative during his tenure in the Senate and was considered one of the upper bodies’ most arch right-wing reactionaries. Therefore, would Roy Moore or Mo Brooks or Luther Strange be considered a caretaker or an ideologue? Brooks has already proven to be an ideologue as a congressman. There is no question but that Moore would be the ultimate ideologue. He would arrive in Washington and by national standards would be the caricature that the Democratic Party would use as the poster boy that depicts how far right the Republican Party is today. It would be Moore’s mission to be perceived as the most ideologically religious zealot on the scene. Alabama would be known for having the most religious right-wing senator in the nation. The national Democrats would use Moore’s picture in every ad in every California race the same way Obama was used in Alabama. Strange would be in the mold of Sen. Shelby as a caretaker. Shelby would mentor Luther, who is more of a mainstream conservative. Strange, Moore or Brooks would all vote conservatively right down the line. They would have the identical voting record as Sessions or Shelby on all the litmus test GOP issues like abortion, immigration, balanced budget, pro-military, pro-gun, pro-agriculture and most importantly the appointment and confirmation of conservative Supreme Court Justices. However, without question, Strange would be a much more effective U.S. Senator for Alabama than Moore or Brooks. He would be more of the type Senator that we have in Shelby. We have had some greats like Shelby, Lister Hill, John Sparkman and John Bankhead. Alabama would be better served to have a conservative caretaker in Washington than a reactionary right-wing ideologue. However, Alabamians may prefer having a missionary in Washington rather than a visionary – at least those who show up to vote Aug. 15. See you next week. ___ Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state Legislature. Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.
