Barack Obama is: Therefore, Scoop Jackson lives!

[change_notfinetuning]

Yep, If you even remember who Scoop Jackson is, and you liked him back then, you probably love Barack Obama.

Actually, I better do more research. It's possible I may have to do some apologizing to Scoop's living relatives.

[maxsolomon]

1. I like his Henry M. Jackson Wilderness Area - I hike there quite a bit

I'd hike in the Barack Obama Wilderness Area, too.

[Thothmes]

2. Senator Jackson

was called one of the greatest legislators by President Reagan. Jackson was one of the strongest supporters of a strong national defense in Congress. He supported Lyndon Johnsons war in Vietnam. He was also one of the strongest supporters of equal rights legislation in the 50s and 60s.

[uppityperson]

3. Jackson boasted one of the strongest records on civil rights during the civil rights movement.

per wiki:
Jackson boasted one of the strongest records on civil rights during the civil rights movement.<4><5> He supported the 1957 Civil Rights Act, and the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In April 1968, responding to the tragic assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Senator Jackson gave a speech in which he talked about the legacy and injustice of inequality.<6>
----------------
Scoop, as most people, was a mixed blessing.

I don't understand what you are saying here though. Please clarify.

[change_notfinetuning]

7. If I remember correctly, Jackson was one of the last Democrats to come to the

conclusion that we needed to get out of Vietnam, if in fact he ever did. But overall, "a mixed blessing" is a good way to describe him.

President Obama has the war part down, but as his non-defense policies are more frustrating by the day to any real Democrat, it's getting harder to describe his presidency as a "mixed blessing", except in comparison to the Bush Bar. At least with Scoop Jackson, when he said something, you knew where he stood. He didn't waiver or talk out of both sides of his mouth.

[quiller4]

4. There is much too love about Scoop Jackson. He was an

early supporter of civil rights. He was a strong supporter of Labor. He was the first Washington politician to meet with advocates for a state minimum wage and step up their meeting with Al Rosselini who adopted that position when he ran for governor. He was an early advocate of environmental policy and primary author of the Wilderness Act of 1964. Were it not for Jackson and the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, there would be no such thing and an environmental impact statement.

LBJ called him a "leading general in the war on poverty". He was an energetic supporter of the New Deal and was a Washington administrator for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration in 1934-35.

He was also a strong civil libertarian and critic of police brutality. He was in the first delegation of officials to vist Buchenwald after liberation. He first advocated free legal representation for indigent defendents while serving as a prosecuting attorney in 1938.

If all you remember about Scoop Jackson was that he was a hawk, then you have a very limited idea of the man. He was an economic and social liberal long before he became known for his virulent anti-Communism. He was an outspoken advocate for national health insurance and public power.

[provis99]

5. yeah, he was sort of a party on his own.

But then in those days, there was less party control. Old timers like Birch Bayh, J. William Fulbright, and Lloyd Bentsen were hard to classify; they all had some good points, and some not so good points.

[Odin2005]

6. That won't deter the naive pacifists from hating him.

WW2 made many on the Left far more hawkish then they are now.