Wayne Morse--though probably too much of a maverick to be on a national ticket...
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"As every denizen of the U.S. Capitol knows, legislative history is sometimes made over a friendly bipartisan glass of bourbon or Scotch. The convivial sessions in Charlie Halleck's "Clinic" or Lyndon Johnson's princely rumpus room can be as important as any committee hearing or party caucus. Even House Speaker John McCormack, a teetotaler, has decided as a matter of legislative policy to continue the gently liquid "Board of Education" meetings held by Sam Rayburn and earlier Speakers.
"[But] Oregon's maverick Democratic Senator Wayne Morse is a teetotaler who believes in preaching what he practices.--TIME, April 13, 1962
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,827243,00.html
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From the Congressional Record:
MR. MORSE: .Mr. President, I wish to speak on a delicate subject. No matter how I phrase my position, I am afraid I will offend some of my colleagues in the Senate. It always pains me when I offend my colleagues. But when I think they are wrong, I must risk their suffering at my expense.
I think they are wrong about a social policy that has been developing in the Senate with increasing frequency in recent years. I believe it ought to be stopped. I refer to official and semiofiicial and, I understand, sometimes unofficial use of the physical facilities in the Capitol and in the Senate Office Buildings. I do not know about the House, and I would not purport to advise the House. However, I have a responsibility to advise the Senate, as does each Senator.
There is a growing social pattern of holding affairs in rooms in the Capitol and in the Senate Office Buildings at which hard liquor is served. In my opinion it cannot be justified. In the opinion of millions of American citizens it constitutes a desecration of public facilities in the Capitol and in the Senate Office Buildings. It ought to be stopped forthwith. At least I think that official action should be taken by Congress and that Members of Congress should be asked to stand up and be counted on the issue. Let them answer back home for any vote in support of such a desecration of the buildings belonging to the taxpayers of this country.
Oh, there are many reasons that cause me to take this position. I mention only a few. First, I do not believe it is a good example for lawmakers to be setting for the youth of this country. Furthermore, the matter of the consumption of hard liquor from the viewpoint of many people involves a moral issue. I am not a prohibitionist in the sense that I advocate a return of the 18th amendment. But I am a prohibitionist in the sense that I believe we ought to prohibit the use of the public facilities of the Capitol and the Senate Office Buildings for any affair at which hard liquor is served. At least we ought to make it an issue of policy, to be approved or disapproved by Congress. I do not believe that Members of Congress should take it upon themselves to hold affairs and invite Members of Congress and members of the Cabinet and other public officials and private citizens to come to the Capitol and to the Senate Office Buildings for an affair at which hard liquor is served.
From the standpoint of congressional policy the serving of hard liquor in the Capitol or in the Senate Office Buildings at any function that is carried on by the remotest stretch of the imagination as an official or semiofficial function of the Senate or of a committee or by a group of Senators cannot be justified, when it amounts to the setting up of a bar in connection with an affair.
I should much prefer that I did not deem it necessary to comment on this subject, but I am not responsible for decisions which result in the serving of hard liquor at these affairs. I am satisfied that if the question had been presented to us as a matter of policy, it would not be approved by Congress in a yea-and-nay vote.
I close my comments by saying that I will not knowingly attend such an affair; and if I find myself in such an affair, and hard liquor is being served, I will immediately absent myself from such an affair, because I do not think it is good public policy.
Mr. MORSE. I close with my plea again to the Committee on Rules, “Come on, and give me hearings,” for there are representatives of church groups in every State of this Union who would like to come here and testify in support of this resolution; and support of the resolution is not limited to representatives of church groups. Many civic groups in this country are shocked when they learn that hard liquor is served in the Capitol of the United States and in the Senate Office Buildings.
I am not talking about the private offices of Senators. That is their business. For those private offices, in a sense, are the same as the living rooms of their homes.
But I wish to say, Mr. President, that I think my resolution is entitled to a hearing. I think the American people are entitled to register their protests about this support of what leads to alcoholism in this country, even by the social practices of the Senate of the United States, in serving hard liquor in the Capitol Building and in the Senate Office Buildings, at official public functions conducted under the auspices of the Senate.
The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873. Debates for sessions prior to 1873 are recorded in The Debates and Proceedings in...
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