I’m inexcusably late with this post. The former Senator died Sunday. He was a legendary and imposing and widely respected figure when I was growing up. And sadly, as I’ve now forgetten so many other things, I didn’t remember that he was once a Vice Presidential candidate (for an entire 18 days), on the ticket with George McGovern in 1972.
Why only 18 days? As Jim Salter’s AP story published in the WaPo Monday explains, Eagleton “dropped out after it was revealed that he had been hospitalized for psychiatric treatment and had twice undergone electroshock therapy for depression. McGovern chose Sargent Shriver to replace Eagleton and lost to Richard Nixon in the general election.”
McGovern, still living, has voiced regrets about that decision. Would keeping Eagleton on the ticket have made a difference? Probably not, but it’s an intriguing speculation.
Readers concerned about the current direction of our foreign policy might also be interested to know the following about Eagleton, excerpted from a St. Louis Post-Dispatch story * yesterday …
In the Vietnam era, Eagleton three times added to bills a requirement that Nixon stop spending money on the war in Vietnam, only to have Nixon veto the measure each time. Nixon finally forged a compromise with Democrats that allowed him to use additional funds only to get the U.S. military out of Vietnam.
Separately, Eagleton led the charge on the War Powers Resolution, but ended up voting against it because he believed amendments added to the measure gave the president too much leeway to deploy troops. Nonetheless, his role was crucial in limiting presidential authority to wage war without congressional approval.
Eagleton’s goal was not only to give Congress an initial say in whether to go to war but also to assure that if the president launched an attack, he would not be able to remain in a conflict for an extended period of time if Congress opposed it, said Norm Ornstein, a congressional expert with the American Enterprise Institute.
Finally, speaking of great Americans with ties to my state and hometown, I pay homage to another one at Central Sanity — one whose mark on history was made 150 years ago yesterday. Can you guess who he is?
* Post-Dispatch story links expire after seven days from their online publication.