National Affairs: Senatorial Joke

In 1924 Washington politicos tittered at the latest Senatorial joke. Blatherskite Coleman Blease had been elected South Carolina's Democratic Senator, in itself funny; and his soap-box campaign oratory had unseated Blatherskite Senator Nathaniel Barksdale Dial then in office. The joke was that Senator Dial was displaying cry-babyish tendencies over his defeat, was, in the language of the street, "bellyaching" around the Senate and vexing Democrats (particularly the unfortunately irrepressible Pat Harrison) by eulogizing President Coolidge* and voting Republican on close issues. Finally Senator Dial dolefully turned over his seat to the succeeding...

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