Wallace White, beloved Republican Senate Minority Leader
Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I honor Wallace White, born in Maine, August 6th 1877. His grandfather, William Frye, was a powerful Senator. He started out working for the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee. Next step was law studies at George Washington University. In 1916, he won first of seven terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. A newspaper opined: "By inheritance, education, culture, initiative and personality, Mr. White is all that the voters can ask." Among his accomplishments were the Radio Act and the Merchant Marine Act. In 1930, White was elected U.S. Senator. He would twice be re-elected. Colleagues named him Minority Leader in 1945. "His chief function is to hold the balance between two much more dominant and vivid men, Robert Taft and Arthur Vandenberg." He voted against confirming to the U.S. Supreme Court a Klansman, Hugo Black, nominated by FD...