How Mike Mansfield saved Joe Biden's political career

[BlueMTexpat]

This story popped up in my FB news feed this am. If it's been posted here before, I apologize, but it's worth reading even if it has.

https://mtstandard.com/news/local/how-mike-mansfield-saved-joe-biden-s-political-career/article_7e726fbc-bb82-574e-a8b0-a116d6b43363.html

From the link:

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In the wake of Joe Biden’s personal tragedy, Mansfield set out to convince Biden that he simply must serve, leading Mansfield’s biographer, Don Oberdorfer, to conclude that Biden “would never have sat in the Senate without Mansfield’s intercession.”

Biden had already contacted Delaware’s governor encouraging him to begin to think about who he would appoint to replace Biden when Mansfield launched his offensive. “Mansfield would not give up on me,” Biden wrote. “He kept calling to check on me,” even invoking Biden’s late wife who had enthusiastically supported his political ambitions. Mansfield said he knew Neilia would want Biden to serve.

Mansfield pressed his case by insisting that he needed Biden to take a seat on the Democratic Steering Committee, the group that determines committee assignments. Such a position for a newly elected senator was unheard of. Mansfield offered a compromise of sorts, pressing Biden to commit to serve at least six months while the majority leader worked to organize the Senate, a compelling if not completely true argument since Democrats enjoyed a comfortable majority without Biden’s vote.

“Senator Mansfield was relentless,” Biden wrote. “He called the hospital every day to tell me he needed me in the Senate and to keep me up to date on Steering Committee business.” Biden, spending days at the bedside of his sons — four-year old Beau was in a body cast and three-year old Hunter had a severe concussion — was initially unmoved by Mansfield’s appeals, saying, “What did I care now?” But Mansfield kept calling.
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Mike Mansfield has always been one of my heroes and was a true statesman in every sense of the word. Living in extreme poverty, he lied about his age to join the military and served in three branches of US military service: the US Navy, Army and Marine Corps! He was the last veteran of WWI to sit in the US Senate. Then he worked in Butte copper mines for several years before meeting his wonderful wife, Maureen, who helped him financially to study at the University of Montana in Missoula. He was a true internationalist with a special love for Asia and Missoula still honors him today with a special center to promote global leadership. http://www.umt.edu/mansfield/

He was a vibrant part of the Montana of my youth.

[Cha]

1. Aww.. TY for this on Mike Mansfield's

part in history, BlueMT.

I remember his name but know nothing about him. I didn't get into politics until 1999.

[BlueMTexpat]

2. You are most welcome.

His first experience in national politics was as the US Representative from Montana. He won the seat vacated by Jeannette Rankin - the first woman ever to serve in the US Congress - in 1942. Rankin did not run in 1942 because she was vilified for voting against the US entry into WWII.

Rankin was a lifelong pacificist and simply would not waver. Today Missoula is also the site of her Peace Center. https://jrpc.org/

Mansfield ended his distinguished career in public service as the US Ambassador to Japan. He was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, in 1977, but Reagan kept him on as the US Ambassador to Japan until 1988. This shows how much he was respected by both sides of the political aisle.

He counted my father among his friends and Dad always considered that to be the greatest of honors.

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Missoula is literally a true blue island in Montana and I still have many friends and some family there. The years I spent there are some of the happiest of my life. Whenever I have the opportunity to visit, I seize it.