Word: congressmen
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...talking about United States congressmen who had protested the executions, he said, "What country are they living in? The Moon? If we delay now in Cuba, people will assault the prison and take justice into their own hands. The accounts of the past must be settled before the people can concentrate their attention on the future." He went on to repeat the arguments he had previously advanced to the effect that only those concerning whose guilt there could be no doubt were being executed now; that an extraordinary situation like a revolution demanded extraordinary measures like military tribunals, that Cuba...
...does with all young Democratic Congressmen, Rayburn took Mills in hand early, gave fatherly advice and counsel. "Don't try to go too fast," he says. "Learn your job." Or: "Don't ever talk until you know what you're talking about." Or still again: "If you want to get along, go along." By that he does not mean blindly sticking to the party line. He does mean living by the manners and morals...
Virginia's Smith especially subscribes to the latter when civil rights bills are before his committee. In 1956 he delayed Rules consideration of a civil rights bill for more than a month, was finally forced, by a signed petition from his own committee, to hold hearings. For days Southern Congressmen paraded their objections before Rules -and all the while Judge Smith kept counting committee noses. Finally one afternoon he found that no quorum was present -and down went his gavel. Missouri's Dick Boiling, leading the civil rights fight within Rules, realized he had been caught...
...newspapers raise a lot of hell about how arbitrary we are," says Smith. "But we grant thousands of rules while denying one." Moreover, the Rules Committee can be -and is -used by the leadership to bottle up irresponsible legislation for which Congressmen may be politically committed to vote if it reaches the floor. "Many, many times." says Howard Smith, "members have told me that they were going to speak publicly for a bill, and if it got out on the floor they would have to vote for it, but they were against the bill and wanted it killed...
...Cracked one reporter: "Where do the lions come in?" Castro's bad press notices mounted, from Buenos Aires, Rio, Lima, Bogota, Mexico City. "The laurels have been soiled by blood," said Bogota's respected El Tiempo. U.S. opinion was sharply critical, with the notable exceptions of Democratic Congressmen Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (N.Y.) and Charles Porter (Ore.) who journeyed to Cuba at Castro's urging and proclaimed that they "saw no evidence of injustice...