Senator Proxmire and the Golden Fleece
Fifty years ago a Wisconsin Senator by the name of William Proxmire took his seat in that hallowed chamber called the United States Senate and for the next 31 years no free-spender was safe. He hated government waste with a passion and there was (and is) lots of it to hate in Washington.
He wasn’t wasteful with his campaign money either. He seldom spent more than $200 on his own re-election campaigns, most of that for postage to send back campaign contributions. And yet he was elected five times to the Senate. He’s been called a Senate gadfly and my dictionary defines ‘gadfly’ as a ‘persistently annoying person.’ That seems a bit harsh and it might be that we could use a few more gadflies in Congress, if he is representative. Proxmire said "Power always has to be kept in check; power exercised in secret, especially under the cloak of national security, is doubly dangerous." Words to live by and legislate by and a timely reminder to us all.
Bill thought he was sent to Washington to stay …