If you come here often you may remember my views of my first real boss, Sen. Mike Mansfield, D-Montana.
Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, oil on canvas painting by Aaron Shikler, 1978 - Wikimedia image
For Memorial Day, author James Grady (Six Days of the Condor) wrote a tribute to Mansfield for Politics Daily. Grady makes the history sing nicely, I think — and he included a key photo taken by his son. You should go read the piece, and maybe save it, if you have any tributes to veterans coming up in your future.
But, particularly, it’s interesting to read about the Majority Leader under whom the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-West Virginia, rose to power. Both men were great in their own right. Mansfield opened the doors and knocked down a few barriers so that Byrd could succeed. Without Mansfield’s gentle handling of Byrd, especially through the crush of civil rights legislation in the 1960s, could Byrd have so masterfully crafted his life?
Thanks for the Mansfield history contribution, Mr. Grady.
Posted by Ed Darrell 
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