Dale Bumpers: “when I was a young man the Governor of Tennessee, the then-Governor of Tennessee, Frank Clement, delivered the keynote…”

“when I was a young man the Governor of Tennessee, the then-Governor of Tennessee, Frank Clement, delivered the keynote address at the Democratic national convention. As I matured and studied speeches like that, I decided it was not quite as great as I thought it was at the time. But the thrust of the speech was, ``How long, America?'' And he kept coming back to that recurring theme. ``How long, oh, how long, America?'' In other words, how long are we going to wait for solutions to these problems? That would be a good speech to give today, how long the American people are going to have to wait until some people in this body, but especially in the House, come to their senses. This morning we had a group of Social Security workers come into our Little Rock office. I was out at the time. My legislative director suggested that they call the Speaker of the House. He told them he would be happy to give them the names of the 73 freshmen Congressman over there, their telephone numbers, and reminded them that the Senate had voted to do precisely what should be done, thanks to the courage of the majority leader. The majority leader probably is not interested in having a Democrat compliment him for what he did because I am sure he is taking unbelievable flak from some quarters in his own party. That goes with the leadership. If you are not willing to stand up for what you believe, you do not deserve to be called a leader.”