Remembering Senator Proxmire

As you know, William Proxmire died yesterday. Appointed to fill the US Senate seat vacated by the death of Joe McCarthy, Proxmire severed in the Senate until the end of his term on January 3, 1989. Along with Gaylord Nelson, these two men occupied my state’s Senate from the beginning of my memory until into my 30s. Who can forget the Golden Fleece awards presented by Proxmire?

Like our blogging nemesis, Dr. Bill D, over at OTBL, I too had a real life encounter with Senator Proxmire. I had heard him speak at UW-RF in the late 1970s. In June 1981, I was working at the Polk County Ledger in Balsam Lake. I was a brand new reporter just out of college. It was Friday after work and some of us where at the bar hoisting a few cold ones and in comes Proxmire. He ordered a beer, made the rounds, shook hands and did his politician thing. When he got to me, I asked if he would be around long enough for me to run back to the office, grab the camera and take his picture. He said sure, his car was parked in front of the office and he would meet me there.

So we met up, I took his picture, told him my Gramma used to baby-sit Gaylord Nelson, he laughed and we parted ways. On Monday morning, I got the picture developed, rushed into the publisher’s office and showed old editor the picture that I was sure would grace the front page of that week’s paper.

He looked at it and said, “We can’t use that.”

“Why not, that’s Senator Proxmire!”

“Because,” he replied, “he’s a goddamn Democrat!”

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