US representative and senator, born in Pekin, Illinois, USA. After serving in the army, he worked in family businesses before entering local politics in 1926. As a Republican member of the US House of Representatives (193351), he supported the New Deal domestic programme while championing isolationist foreign policy. A political pragmatist, he drafted the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946. In the US Senate (195169) he was a conservative McCarthyite until 1956, when he became an Eisenhower loyalist and moderate, chosen as Republican whip in 1957 and Republican leader in 1959. Ironically the high point of his career came during the Kennedy and Johnson presidencies, when he delivered key Republican support for the Test Ban Treaty of 1963 and the Civil Rights acts of 1964, 1965, and 1968.
Everett McKinley Dirksen (January 4, 1896 – September 7, 1969) was a Republican U.S. Congressman and Senator from Illinois. As Republican Senate leader he played a highly visible role in the politics of the 1960s. He was one of the Senate's strongest supporters of the Vietnam War.
Dirksen was born to German immigrant parents in Pekin, Illinois—near Peoria, Illinois and about 120 miles southwest of Chicago—where he grew up on a small farm.
After an unsuccessful first run for the House of Representatives in 1929, he was elected to that body in 1932. During World War II, he lobbied successfully for an expansion of congressional staff resources to eliminate the practice under which House and Senate committees borrowed executive branch personnel to accomplish legislative work.
After recovering, he was elected to the Senate in 1950 when he unseated Senate Majority Leader Scott Lucas in a bitter contest. In the 1950 campaign, Dirksen heavily relied upon the support of Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy to gain a narrow victory. Dirksen became a staunch ally of McCarthy, but tried and failed to get him to apologize to stave off censure in 1954. Dirksen voted not to censure him, but privately conceded that McCarthy "had lost his senses". Dirksen's canny political skill, rumpled appearance, and convincing, if sometimes flowery, overblown oratory (he was hence dubbed by his critics "the Wizard of Ooze") made his national reputation.
In 1959 he was elected to Minority Leader of the Senate, defeating Kentucky's more liberal Senator, John Sherman Cooper, by a vote of 20–14. Dirksen successfully united the various factions of the Republican party by granting younger Republicans more representation in the Senate leadership and better committee appointments. He held the position of Senate Minority Leader until his death following cancer surgery on September 7, 1969 at Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, DC. Along with Charles Halleck and later Gerald Ford (the Republican Minority Leaders of the House), Dirksen was the official voice of the Republican party during most of the 1960s, and was often featured on television news. Dirsken said in February 1964: [Dietz p 59]
First I agree that obviously we cannot retreat from our position in Vietnam.
As Johnson followed Dirksen's recommendations and escalated the war, Dirksen gave him strong public support, as well as strong support inside the Republican caucus, even as some Republicans advised him that it would be to the party advantage to oppose Johnson. Now, Dirksen never took that same hard-line position that I took." [Dietz 149]
On March 22, 1966, Dirksen introduced a Constitutional amendment that would permit public school administrators to provide for organized prayer by students. This amendment was seen by many to violate the principle of separation of church and state, and was defeated in the Senate with only 49 affirmative votes, falling short of the 67 votes required for a Constitutional amendment.
He is most often remembered for the quip: "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon, you're talking real money". (See wikiquotes of Everett Dirksen.)
Dirksen was also legendary for his fondness for the marigold. When political discussions became tense, Dirksen would lighten the atmosphere by taking up his perennial campaign to have the marigold named the national flower.
He recorded four albums in his resonant bass speaking voice, one of which, Gallant Men, unexpectedly made it to #29 on the U.S. Billboard charts and won a Grammy Award for Best Documentary Recording in 1968. Dirksen made TV guest appearances such as What's My Line, The Hollywood Palace and The Red Skelton Show.
In 1972, one of the Senate's buildings was renamed the Dirksen Senate Office Building in his honor.
Dirksen's daughter, Joy, was the first wife of Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee.
At the vote for cloture on the filibuster against the Civil Rights Act, Dirksen had this to say
"Victor Hugo wrote in his diary substantially this sentiment, 'Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come.' The time has come for equality of opportunity in sharing of government, in education, and in employment. Dirksen, Louella Carver, with Norma Lee Browning. Everett Dirksen and His Presidents: How a Senate Giant Shaped American Politics.
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