Former senator Charles Percy died

[Hawaii Hiker]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/us/politics/charles-percy-former-illinois-senator-is-dead-at-91.html?hp

He was a moderate republican, something we'll never see again..Back in the 60's & 70's there were actually several moderate republicans - Nelson Prockefeller, Jacob Javits, and a couple others whose names escape me at the moment...

[Old and In the Way]

1. I'd add Pete McClosky and Bill Cohen to your list

I'm so old, I remember when progressive legislation was passed by coalitions of politicians from both parties.

[Brother Buzz]

4. For what it's worth, the honorable Pete McClosky is now a proud Democrat

In the spring of 2007, McCloskey announced that he had changed his party affiliation to the Democratic Party. In an email and letter to the Tracy Press, McCloskey stressed that the "new brand of Republicanism" had finally led him to abandon the party that he had joined in 1948. He followed this up with an op-ed column in which he explained that "Disagreement (with party leadership) turned into disgust" and "I finally concluded that it was fraud for me to remain a member of this modern Republican Party", although it was a "decision not easily taken."

[Old and In the Way]

16. Interesting...I did not know.

Can't say that I'm surprised, though....if the Democratic Party had taken an anti-intellectual, ideological bent like the teapublican party, I'd have done the same thing.

[Brother Buzz]

18. The last straw was his party trying to reverse his legacy legislation, The Endangered Species Act

Richard Pombo was spearheading the move. McCloskey came out of retirement and ran against him in a primary and lost, but Pombo was weakened and was defeated in the general election. The seat flipped, and so did McCloskey.

He lives in my area, and, well, I've always admired him for his ethics. That, and his whistle blowing with his first-hand knowledge that exposed Pat Robertson's military record as a bald-faced lie. Pat couldn't quite comprehend that Pete was on the same damn ship.

[in_cog_ni_to]

2. May he rest in peace. I remember when is daughter Valerie was murdered.

Someone entered their home and murdered her in the middle of the night. It was a brutal, bloody murder. She was stabbed and bludgeoned to death. :scared: I can't remember if that was ever solved? At the time, it freaked me out because I was only 11 years old and if that could happen to a Senator's daughter...

[mopinko]

6. afaik, never solved

the house they lived in was torn down a year or so ago. part of a larger estate, they never lived in that house again.

one of the last sane republicans, to be sure.

[in_cog_ni_to]

10. Wow. And you know every cop in Chicago worked that case for years.

Unbelievable that it was never solved. I don't blame them for never living there. I wouldn't have either. :(

[undeterred]

17. I was 10 years old, living in IL

and it was the same year Richard Speck killed all those student nurses. Why is it so dangerous to be female?!

When my dog had puppies that year we named two of them Douglas and Percy. But Douglas died.

[asjr]

3. I do tell my children about my days

as a Republican. I tell them at one time there were Republicans who cared more about their country than the selfish ones today. And I really did like Ike.

[WI_DEM]

5. He voted for liberal legislation more than some democratic senators did.

Hard to believe that at one time the GOP had an open minded, independent thinking caucus.

[Hawaii Hiker]

9. Hell, back in the day, some republicans mentioned in this thread were

probably more liberal than some of the Dixiecrats at the time....

[nomb]

14. He beat the liberal Dem Douglas with an Anti-Vietnam platform, that and the murder on election eve

I worked for Simon in Percy's '84 defeat, Percy was considered way out of touch and in the end, not terribly well respected on the ground.

[Faygo Kid]

7. I remember him well, and his daughter's murder was chilling national news.

He was a decent man and a Republican. Can't hardly say that about any of them today.

[HereSince1628]

8. My father was unhappy about Percy's anti-union positions

Nope, I don't remember what those positions were.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. They're dropping like flies today.

[bleever]

12. He spoke at my high school around 1977, and got a big cheer

when one kid who always wore a fragrant army jacket asked him if he favored legalizing marijuana and he said he did.

Sure, it might have been pandering, but it was OUR kind of pandering.

[JaneQPublic]

13. Several good, moderate Republicans came out of Illinois...

...Percy, Everett Dirkson, Big Jim Thompson. Any one of them would be drummed out of the party today, after being labeled a RINO and Socialist.

[nomb]

15. Percy started Thompson in the biz.... and he got John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court

[Tx4obama]

19. Percy's daughter Sharon is married to Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)

SNIP

Percy's daughter, Sharon Rockefeller, announced in March 2009 that he had Alzheimer's disease. His death was announced by the office of his son-in-law, West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller.

Jay Rockefeller praised his father-in-law's even-handed political stances in a statement Saturday on behalf of the Rockefeller and Percy families.

"His insistence on a balanced perspective in his public life, (calling himself "fervently moderate"), helped us understand it is both possible and preferable to live in a world without partisanship," he said.

SNIP

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/17/charles-percy-dead_n_967497.html

[Raine]

20. Moderate Repubs ... certainly a dying breed

sad news for sure R-I-P Senator Percy

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

22. Most moderate Republicans now call themselves Democrats (n/m)

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

21. Nowadays, a guy like him would be a whipping boy for assholes like Demint (n/m)