Friday night, I went to a fund raiser held in honor of former Congressman Don Edwards of California. Several speakers referred to him as “The Congressman from the Constitution” — in reference to Nat Hentoff’s description of him.
Edwards was a Republican, and an FBI agent, but switched parties and ran for Congress in San Jose back in 1962. Once in Congress, Edwards defended our civil rights, helped sponsor the Voting Rights Act, inspired a generation of South Bay politicos, and worked on environmental legislation.
The Democrats did not warm to him immediately. During the 1962 primaries, someone was stealing his campaign signs. Edwards did some detective work and learned who was doing it: a local Labor leader. In a bit of ’social engineering’, Edwards called the home of the thief, and introduced himself as a San Jose police officer investigating the theft of the signs. The thief relented, and 41 years later, he was on stage presenting a citiation to Edwards on behalf of labor in the South Bay.
In the article, Hentoff also reports on Tom Daschle’s disgraceful refusal to allow debate or amendment to the so-called USA PATRIOT act, and his confrontation with Russ Feingold (D, WI) over it.
