Thomas Daschle: “46 years ago the South Dakota Democratic Party was hardly more than George McGovern, George Cunningham, and a beat up…”

“46 years ago the South Dakota Democratic Party was hardly more than George McGovern, George Cunningham, and a beat up old station wagon. I was eight. Little did I know I would one day owe a career to those two men and that car. One of those men is now world-famous, his name a synonym for political courage and common decency. The other, George Cunningham, is unknown to most. But George Cunningham is known to me. I know him as the man who flew quietly to South Dakota to rescue a political newborn from a life-threatening recount in 1978. I know him for his wise counsel during a testing challenge from Congressman Clint Roberts, and through the other muddles of my political adolescence. I know George as the man from whom my own George Cunningham, Pete Stavrianos, says he learned both his trade and his passion for that trade. And I know George Cunningham as the diabolical practical joker whose powers to disarm and confuse with his wit remain to this day the most powerful antidote to self-importance I have ever witnessed. ``GVC,'' as he was known to those familiar with his smoking IBM Selectric, is a man who has never taken himself too seriously, but has always fiercely insisted his lifetime profession be taken seriously.”