Like Fathers... Like Sons-- Or Worse

John Sarbanes, a progressive 40-year-old, nose-to-the-grindstone Maryland Democratic congressman, is kind of the odd man out when it comes to congressional offspring. John represents a district, the 3rd, once represented by his father, Senator Paul Sarbanes. John an alum of Princeton and Harvard, is widely considered a serious, thoughtful, hardworking Rep., very different from most of the sons of a congressional parent. Yesterday a far more typically incompetent son of an already grotesquely incompetent former congressional dad-- Ben Quayle/Brock Landers-- gave his maiden speech on the House floor, before hitching a ride on Air Force 1 and accompanying the gracious man he called, in a distinctly reptilian manner, "the worst president in history" just a few months ago. Already tied for the 354th worst member of Congress, Quayle/Landers can boast a perfect zero score in every single category surveyed by Progressive Punch since he took the oath of office. There's no reason to believe he will ever go beyond the zero mark.

Of course Quayle/Landers and Sarbanes are hardly the only fortunate sons to have followed their father's footsteps into Congress. Rand Paul (R-KY) already disgraced his family name by pointing out that-- qualified after self-certifying himself as an eye doctor-- that right-wing terrorist Jared Loughner is a paranoid schizophrenic, although his rambling "philosophy" sounds shockingly like the philosophy of the Paul Family. And, like the Pauls, he's even a fan of the lunatic fringe author Rand was named for, Ayn Rand.

Yesterday's L.A. Times pointed out that experts tend to agree "that several oft-repeated phrases and concepts-- his fixation on grammar conspiracies, currency and the "second United States Constitution"-- seem derived from concepts explored with regularity among elements of the far right. 'What you can see across the board in his writings is the idea that you can't trust the government-- that the government engages in mind control against its citizens,' said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has long monitored the radical right. Loughner's assertion that he would not 'pay debt with a currency that's not backed by gold and silver' is a running theme among right-wing opponents of the Federal Reserve system," and is the ultimate in the Paultardism shared by father and son.

Funny enough, it was a piece in the NY Times last week about how badly Andrew Cuomo is going wrong, that got me thinking about how political kids should not generally be encouraged to go into the family business. Mario Cuomo was never in Congress but he was an exceptional governor of New York. His son promises to be among the worst in the state's history, for working families and for the Democratic Party. And there's an endless list of godawful Democratic sons far worse than accomplished fathers-- Dan Boren (OK) and Mark Pryor (AR) especially stand out-- as well as some who are competing with already mediocre or awful parents, like Dan Lipinski (IL) and Kendrick Meek (FL), the first child to follow a congressional mother into the House. In his book, Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell points to the headstarts in the family business-- what he calls the "10,000 hour rule"-- that give offspring a headstart on mastering their parent's jobs.

In 1929 Paul John Kvale followed former Minnesota Congressman Ole Juulson Kvale into the House, a mention of which I stumbled across in a story I found in an old issue of Time Magazine, that was actually urging Minnesotans to elect another son of a Congressman, pro-Nazi fly-boy Charles Lindbergh. The story starts off on the right foot-- "primogeniture and hereditary public office have no place in U. S. tradition"-- and then almost immediately veers off into an ominous direction.

This fact, however, did not last week deter the voters of the 7th Minnesota District from electing by a two-to-one majority Paul John Kvale (pronounced "Ka-volley") of Benson to the Congressional seat for six years occupied by his father, the Rev. Ole John Kvale, whose charred body was last month found in his burned summer cottage (TIME, Sept. 23). Like his father whom he, the eldest of six sons, served as secretary in Washington, Son Kvale was chosen as a Farmer-Laborite and will be the sole representative of that party in the House. The new Congressman is an engaging young man, thoroughly Nordic in appearance, thoroughly accommodating in manner.

The Congressional District adjoining Son Kvale's in Minnesota might offer a spectacular opportunity for the perpetuation of another father & son tradition in U. S. politics. From that district came the late Congressman Charles Augustus Lindbergh, father of official No. 1 U. S. Hero. The late Congressman Lindbergh left his seat in 1917. Son Lindbergh then lacked ten years of the constitutional age (25) for House membership. Many have been the suggestions that Hero Lindbergh should now attempt to succeed to his father's old seat in Congress. Against these suggestions arise three mighty obstacles: 1) Col. Lindbergh lacks a Minnesota residence. 2) Short, smiling Harold Knutson who took the Lindbergh seat a dozen years ago is firmly entrenched in the Republican organization of the House where he serves Speaker Longworth as whip (chief aide-de-camp) and from which he has no desire to be dislodged even by Hero No. 1 of the U. S. 3) Lindbergh Sr. made his political reputation as a radical. Col. Lindbergh has comfortable, conservative political views, if any. Many another son has followed his father into high office. Only one President's son has become President (John Adams-- John Quincy Adams); only one President's grandson has become President (William Henry Harrison-- Benjamin Harrison). But two Senators' sons now sit in the Senate: Frederick Hale of Maine whose sire was the late great Eugene Hale (1836-1918) and Robert Marion La Follette of Wisconsin, the Peter Pannish offspring of sturdy "Battle Bob" (1855-1925). In the House today is found a rare grandfather-father-son tradition of service in the ancient and honorable family of Tucker from Virginia. Henry St. George Tucker (1780-1848) served in the 14th and 15th Congress. His chief distinction: a tirade and a vain vote in 1816 against increased pay for Congressmen which he refused to take himself. John Randolph Tucker (1823-1897) served from the 44th to the 50th Congress. Henry St. George Tucker, 76, is now serving his ninth noncontinuous Congressional term since 1889. His chief distinction: a tirade and a vote in 1927 against increased pay for Congressmen which, according to family tradition, he refuses to take himself.

Time had a different paragraph policy back then. I'm shocked they didn't mention any Frelinghuysens. Today Rodney P. Frelinghuysen represents New Jersey's wealthiest district (the 11th)-- second most affluent congressional district in the U.S.-- but starting in 1793, four Frelinghuysens represented New Jersey in the U.S. Senate and Rodney's father, Peter Hood Ballantine Frelinghuysen, Jr., was elected to Congress in 1952 and served until his retirement in 1974. In 2000 Michael Moore tried to get a potted plant (a ficus) on the ballot as Frelinghuysen's opponent.

Recently Illinois voters were smart enough to reject the uber corrupt son of uber-corrupt former Congressman (and House Speaker) Denny Hastert. It looks like the fix is already in though to make Harry Reid's son a Member of Congress from Nevada's new aborning congressional district (in return for making Joe Heck's swing district more Republican-friendly). Probably the worst case of a son taking a House seat on his father's name is Dan Boren, a slow-witted and craven Blue Dog who represents eastern Oklahoma. His father, David Boren, was a popular governor and U.S. Senator (and closet case) and his grandfather, Lyle Boren, a far right anti-union kook, also represented the area. Presumably because the two of them were Democrats, the ultra-conservative Dan, has maintained pro-forma ties to that party, although he votes more frequently with the GOP and was George Bush's favorite Democrat.