Vice President Charles Dawes Makes A Monkey of Himself

Charles Dawes was an impressive public servant. He was one of the few Americans to win a Nobel Peace Prize. He was the first director of what we now call the OMB. He was also Calvin Coolidge's Vice President. In his 1925 inaugural address, Dawes decided to speak truth to power and call for the end of the filibuster.  The New York Times reported that Dawes wagged his finger at the Senate with a headline that included "Thumps Desk Vigorously." Here are some choice quotes: 

1. The filibuster was “subversive of the fundamental principles of free government” and “places in the hands of one or of a minority of Senators a greater power than the veto power exercised under the Constitution by the President of the United States.”

2. “Were this the first session of the Senate and its present system of rules, unchanged, should be presented seriously for adoption, the impact of outraged public opinion, reflected in the attitudes of the Senators themselves, would crush the proposal like an egg shell.”

3. “To evade or ignore an issue between right and wrong methods is in itself a wrong.”

Needless to say, this didn't go over well in the room. Chief Justice Taft wrote his son that Dawes "made a monkey of himself." And the filibuster lived on.