Reagan Wins Another Vote, to a Place in Congress

NY Times ^ | September 5, 2006 | JESSE McKINLEY

[PDR]

SNIP....

Politicians, however, are nothing if not fickle in their affections. So it was that last week the California Legislature, at the behest of a Republican lawmaker, decided that a statue of King should be replaced in the National Statuary Hall at the United States Capitol by one of a more modern Republican with a similar gift for public speaking: Ronald Reagan.

The measure, which passed nearly unanimously just before the end of the legislative session on Thursday night, was hailed by State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth, its Republican author, as a fitting nod to the Great Communicator.

“We have a lot of tributes that are existing and to come for Ronald Reagan,” said Mr. Hollingsworth, from Murrieta, between Los Angeles and San Diego. “But this is California’s contribution.”

SNIP...

A field trip mainstay, the statuary hall was founded by Congress in 1864 — the year King died of diphtheria at 39 — with a simple plan: invite each state to place statues of two of its notable citizens at the Capitol. For decades the states did just that, gradually building a collection of Americans both nationally famous (like Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin, the Texas twosome) and less so (Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry, an educator from Alabama).

Then, in 2000, Congress enacted a little-noticed law allowing legislatures to replace statues from their states. Three years later, Kansas became the first to junk one, replacing a marble depiction of George Washington Glick, a former governor known, according to the hall’s Web site, for his “reassessment of tax laws, and the establishment of a livestock sanitary commission,” with a more sporty bronze of Dwight D. Eisenhower. (All sculptures must be either bronze or marble.)

[sine_nomine]

Leave Jabez alone, for pity's sake.

I'm glad Reagan will be there. Not enough can be said about the greatness of his leadership.

I have noticed that college students have great regard for him, too.

He was a leader. We need another Reagan president, not another RINO.

[Verginius Rufus]

Thomas Starr King was credited with keeping California in the Union. Maybe they should let each state have three statues to allow more recent people to be honored without having to dump older honorees.

King Co., Washington, was originally named for a different King, William Rufus King (Vice President of the U.S.), but has been "renamed" in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.

One of the Illinois statues honors James Shields, a 19th-century politician...so they won't have any problem dumping him to honor Illinois' favorite daughter, Hillary.

[Jack Hammer]

Good ol' Dutch... wow, I miss him!