A Light in the House: Farewell to a Senate Friend
Pryor related a country courtroom case where he represented the owner of a stolen coon dog. "The dog walked into the courtroom, stopped and sniffed, and put his paws on my client's chest.
"You could hear a pin drop."
Disarming and low-key, Pryor championed seniors, labor and the environment in 18 years of Senate work. He resented "hate groups trying to demonize" the federal government. How prescient.
Before his political career, Pryor published a "little paper," the Ouachita Citizen. He opposed -- and later defeated -- the rigidly racist Gov. Orval Faubus.
Pryor served with loquacious Sen. Dale Bumpers from the same Southern state. He chuckled, "Three former governors of Arkansas (Bumpers and Clinton), all of us gainfully employed!"
He never lost his reverence for the dignified Senate's traditions.
"I can remember my first day in the Senate, how much in awe I was. I chose the right clothes to make my first speech. ... I love the Capitol building itself. We tend to forget (it's) an absolutely grand place to work.
"I hope (the Senate) does not succumb to become a House."
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The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.
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