A few senators wished Huey well and usually voted with him, but none entirely approved of his methods. Essentially a loner, the Kingfish nevertheless became identified with the Senate's so-called Progressive Bloc, made up of George W. Norris of Nebraska, Robert La Follette, Jr., of Wisconsin, William E. Borah of Idaho, Gerald P. Nye of North Dakota, Burton K. Wheeler of Montana, Bronson Cutting of New Mexico, and Henrik Shipstead of Minnesota. Norris, La Follette, Borah, and Nye were nominal Republicans, Wheeler and Cutting liberal Democrats, and Shipstead the sole Farmer-Laborite in the Senate. The Progressive Bloc's unity derived from a belief that President Hoover, along with most Republicans and Democrats in Congress, were wrongly trying to fight the Great Depression by shoring up big business instead of helping ordinary Americans. Huey stood out among the Senate progressives in several ways: he was the most flamboyant, he was the only southerner, and he alone habitually ascribed base motives to conservative opponents.