He is easily the Senate's coolest elder statesman. Genial, pipe-smoking Democrat Mike Mansfield, Montana Senator since 1953 and his party's majority leader since 1961, can be sharp-tongued when he needs to be. But in 15 years of Senate floor leadership the longest tenure of any floor leader in the history of the upper chamber he is legendary for almost never having lost his temper. Other majority leaders, like Mansfield's predecessor, Lyndon Johnson, bullied, threatened and arm-twist ed recalcitrant colleagues. The Montanan soothed, persuaded with calm reason and took the quiet...
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