Memories flourish when South Dakota columnists remembered Kennedy
Gordon Garnos
AT ISSUE: It’s been a few weeks since the death of Senator Ted Kennedy, but columnists across the country are still bringing up their remembrances of the powerful senator from Massachusetts. Most of them have been kind in not rehashing the Chappaquiddick tragedy of Mary Jo Kopechne. Several South Dakota columnists joined the chorus, reminding us of the Kennedys association with our state. They have brought up other memories for this old coot as well.
THE NEWSPAPER in that town near Harrisburg recently carried the headline, “Johnson finds foes in ascent to key job.” The story referenced South Dakota’s senior senator, Tim Johnson, perhaps ascending to the chairmanship of the powerful U.S. Senate Banking Committee. The possible move by Johnson would be filling the chairmanship of that committee left void by Kennedy’s death.
Senator Dodd, D-Conn., because of his seniority was next in line for the job, but he was eying the other committee chairmanship, Health and Education Committee, also previously held by Kennedy.
Then, Senator Johnson was next in line on the banking committee, which would allow for his ascension in to that powerful chair. However, there were a few roadblocks that stood in his way. First, he has ties to the financial services industry (including the credit card industry in the state that employees thousands of South Dakotans). Secondly, would his health permit him accepting such an active role. And third, because of those ties consumer groups were favoring Senator Jack Reed, D-R.I., if Dodd didn’t take it.
HOWEVER, A WEEK ago Senator Dodd decided to stay on the banking committee which should elevate him to the chairmanship of the committee.
Why did Dodd decide to stay with the banking committee? Was it because the appearance of his consumer group support and Johnson’s ties with the banking service industry? Or was it simply Dodd’s desire to somewhat distance himself from the looming health care reform fight since he has a tough battle coming up for reelection next year? We may never know the answers to these questions.
With Kennedy’s death, one of Gannett’s top columnists, Chuck Raasch, originally from Castlewood, wrote that “brings to an end the Kennedy families long connection with South Dakota… But the Kennedys are not the only national politicians who have had connections with South Dakota.”
LISTING THEM, Raasch first mentioned the late Hubert Humphrey, senator and vice president, who was born in Wallace, graduated from the Doland High School and worked in Huron before he moved to Minneapolis.
A little side note here: When Humphrey was the vice president, he spoke at a Doland High School graduation. That is where I came on the scene. His entire entourage stayed the night before at the Plateau Inn in Watertown.
One of the requirements to host the vice president, he had to have a two-room “suite” with a color television in each room. The motel owner had to knock a hole in the wall between two rooms to meet the “requirement.” The next morning Humphrey was up early and out of his “suite” so about all he could have seen on either tv set was Bugs Bunny.
THE NEXT MORNING when the buses were leaving for Doland, then Senator George McGovern was visiting with someone in the lobby and almost missed the ride to Doland. As the buses were pulling out, our South Dakota senator had to run to catch his ride.
Another Public Opinion reporter went to Doland and I stayed behind and got a tremendous story from Humphrey’s pilot.
Raasch next mentioned the late Jack Kemp, former commerce secretary. Kemp’s great grandfather, Oscar, helped found Watertown, named in honor of his hometown, Watertown, N.Y. Our city’s main street is named in his honor.
ONE OF KEMP’S first announcements in 1996 that he was running for vice president was in South Dakota’s Watertown. After covering his speech, I took him to Kemp Avenue and got a great photo of him under a Kemp Avenue street sign.
Mentioning Watertown, it was Bobby Kennedy’s last stop on his way to California, where he was later gunned down by Sirhan Sirhan.
U.S. President John F. Kennedy with George McGovern, who Kennedy has appointed the first Director of the Food for Peace program
In a recent article by Bob Mercer, a South Dakota columnist from Pierre, wrote about John F. Kennedy and his close ties with Lt. Governor Bill Dougherty of Sioux Falls and Senator McGovern.
MERCER PENNED, “President John F. Kennedy lost in South Dakota in 1960 and joked that he might have cost McGovern a victory too against Republican U.S. Sen. Karl Mundt that November.
“Two years later, with Kennedy in the White House, McGovern narrowly beat Republican Joe Bottom for the other Senate seat held by the late Francis Case.”
Mentioning South Dakota’s Karl Mundt and Francis Case, Mercer touched on two of South Dakota’s most famous political leaders. But I’ll save my comments on them in a column for sometime in the future. They, too, certainly left their prints in Washington, D.C.
Nor can we forget columnist Dave Kranz with the Argus Leader. Yes, he is originally from Kranzburg. South Dakota. He touched on the Kennedys association with South Dakota two or three times.
NATIONAL COLUMNISTS, including Kathleen Parker, Rod Dreher of the Dallas Morning News, and Paul Greenberg, with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, did not fail to write about that part of the Ted Kennedy story that didn’t have much to do with our nation’s capital, but we won’t go there this time….
Gordon Garnos was long-time editor of the Watertown Public Opinion, retiring after 39 years with that newspaper. Garnos, a lifelong resident of South Dakota except for his military service in the U.S. Air Force, was born and raised in Presho.
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