Gore's relationship with senatorial leadership
Though Gore had less seniority than Estes Kefauver, he soon found that he made political alliances more easily, making him more influential when negotiating for compromise.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Albert Gore, October 24, 1976. Interview A-0321-2. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- JAMES B. GARDNER:
-
Senator Kefauver, I understand, was also interested in the Joint
Committee on Atomic Energy, and in fact inquired of Senator Lyndon B.
Johnson if there might not be an opening on the Joint Committee in '54:
that it would be a great help with his constituents, that it was a vital
issue to Tennessee and was something he was also interested in. Yet when
the opening came up, Senator Johnson chose you over the senior senator
from the state. What do you think was the reason this? Was it simply a
reflection of your own involvement and the concern of the Democrats to
continue with perhaps the most prominent leader of the Dixon-Yates fight
because the fight was not yet over--you continued it in the
Joint Committee? What do you think was the reason? Did Kefauver get
along well with Senator Johnson?
- ALBERT GORE:
-
No, he didn't get along with the Senate leadership, any of the Senate
leadership at that time. You will recall (I'm not sure) that Scott W.
Lucas was leader, I believe, at the time.
- JAMES B. GARDNER:
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He had been defeated.
- ALBERT GORE:
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In '54?
- JAMES B. GARDNER:
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I believe before '54, because Lucas had opposed Kefauver's presidential
nomination in 1952 in retaliation for his own earlier defeat.
- ALBERT GORE:
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Well, that's correct. So I guess Johnson had become Democratic leader. I
know that Senator Lucas was very much opposed to Senator Kefauver, as
was Harry Truman. And I think there was not a good equation between
Senator Kefauver and Senator Lyndon Johnson at the time. There was a
very good equation between Senator Johnson and me at the time. And I
suppose because of that and then because of my experience in the House
and my identification with the nuclear energy issue, with the TVA, with
power, with energy, the whole category of legislation, I had been
closely identified with it and Senator Kefauver had not. Now this may
have played a part; I can't tell you now what brought it about, but I
won it.
- JAMES B. GARDNER:
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Pursuing the same sort of thing, I understand that in 1955 Senator
Kefauver wanted an investigation of the Dixon-Yates contract through the
Judiciary Subcommittee on Anti-Monopoly. But yet he was blocked again on
that. The Democratic leadership just didn't seem to be too interested in
Kefauver's investigation. Yet I understand you had some role in
persuading the leadership to let Kefauver set up this panel that
eventually was important in exposing a conflict of interest in the
contract negotiations.
- ALBERT GORE:
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I favored it; I favored it and did support Senator Kefauver in that. And
he rendered a very notable service.
- JAMES B. GARDNER:
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Wasn't it unusual for the junior senator to have this much influence,
that he had to help the senior senator from the state?
- ALBERT GORE:
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Well, there were unusual features. Senator Kefauver was not the usual
type of legislator. Senator Kefauver was in many respects a public
relations senator. He was a national figure; he personalized or
epitomized many popular causes. And because of the renown he achieved
and also because he seemed to eschew the daily give-and-take of
legislation, he was never particularly popular with his colleagues in
the Senate. To put it in common parlance, he was never exactly a member
of the Senate club. I was more inclined to do the day-to-day chores. I
was regularly in attendance to committees and on the floor of the
Senate, and frequently in debate. I don't think I was ever a full member
of the inner club, but I was a member of the Senate club--if
that explains some of the differences.