Grand Old Partisan

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I commemorate a telecommunications milestone. June 10th 1924 began the 18th Republican National Convention, at Cleveland's public auditorium. It was the first political national convention broadcast over the radio. By then, three million American homes had radios. AT&T set up an informal network with sixteen stations: "An announcer will be in constant attendance with concise and vivid descriptions of the events taking place in the Convention Hall and explanations of the significance of what is going on. The announcer will introduce the various speakers so that the entire matter will be an interesting broadcasting program." New York City stations assembled a rival radio network for the three-day event. Republicans utilized the new medium much more effectively than Democrats. The GOP set up it own radio station, ...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I spotlight the Christopher Columbus Memorial Fountain, at Union Station in Washington DC. This project began as an initiative by the Catholic fraternal organization Knights of Columbus. Funding was passed by the GOP-controlled 59th Congress and signed by President Theodore Roosevelt. June 8th 1912, more than fifty thousand people gathered for the dedication. In attendance were the Italian and Spanish ambassadors, the papal nuncio, the Speaker of the House, the Chief Justice, Cabinet officers, and other dignitaries. After opening remarks by the Knights of Columbus national director, President William Howard Taft observed: "It is most appropriate in this beautiful place in which the visitor to the country’s capital first sets foot upon the small district that is the only territory in which this great government exercises exc...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I hail Eugene Hale, born June 9th 1836. After nine years as county prosecutor, in 1867 he was elected to the Maine legislature. Following year, he won first of five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Receiving his vote were the [anti-] Ku Klux Klan Act, Yellowstone National Park, and the 1875 Civil Rights Act. Hale declined nomination for Postmaster General from President Ulysses Grant. President Rutherford Hayes offered to appoint him Secretary of the Navy. In 1881, the legislature elected him to first of five U.S. Senate terms. Hale married the daughter of Zachariah Chandler, co-founder of the Republican Party. One of his sons also became a U.S. Senator and another, Third Assistant Secretary of State in the William Howard Taft administration. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is my civil rights history of ...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute Edward Perkins, born in Louisiana, June 8th 1928. After three years in the Army and the Marines four years, he earned a BA from University of Maryland, then an MA and a Ph.D. in Public Administration from University of Southern California. Perkins joined the Foreign Service during the Nixon administration. President Ronald Reagan named him Ambassador to Liberia and then to South Africa. President George H. Bush appointed him Director General of the Foreign Service, then Ambassador to the United Nations. His next assignment was Ambassador to Australia. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is my civil rights history of the GOP. To quote the book: "The more we Republicans know about the history of our party, the more Democrats will worry about the future of theirs. For more information, see www.grandoldpartisan.com .  Here is a YouTube Video about this article...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I honor Charles Bonaparte, born in Baltimore, June 9th 1851. His grandfather was the first Emperor Napoleon’s brother. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Bonaparte became a prominent activist with the National Municipal League, the Reform League, the Board of Indian Commissioners and the National Civil Service Reform League. He resolutely defended African-Americans from Democrat oppression. In a classic address at Catholic University, Bonaparte noted that "a scholar may be specially interested in some particular field of knowledge, but he is indifferent to none. He knows how to value every successful effort to master truth; how to look beyond the little things of science to the great things – God's handiwork as seen in nature, God's mind as shadowed in the workings of the minds of men." Twelve years a fr...