Word: ervin
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...florid, folksy, courtly Southern gentleman-thought to be a vanishing breed-was suddenly resuscitated and became relevant. As one witness after another came before the committee to tell of his shabby doings, Ervin's devotion to law and liberty shone by contrast. His eyebrows dancing up and down like puppets on a string, he made his points sharply and supported them with apt quotations from Shakespeare and the Bible. He sympathized while he remonstrated with the errant public servants, and redemption was always possible. Ervin intended the investigation to educate the American people, and he succeeded. In turn...
...Ervin's Senate career defies conventional analysis. He was a leader of the Southern bloc that tried to stop desegregation with everything possible-particularly filibusters. He argued vehemently against the expansion of rights for criminal suspects by the Warren Court. He was a moderate hawk who thought the generals should have their way in Viet Nam. Yet he also became the most formidable opponent of incursions on civil liberties by the Government. Says he: "The history of liberty is the history of limitations of Government power...
Fried Fish. Ervin was a forceful foe of Senator Joe McCarthy when he was indulging in his red-baiting excesses. Ervin was a principal backer of the Bail Reform Act of 1966 that allowed poor people to remain out of jail before their trials if they were reasonable risks. Over the years, he has held many little-publicized hearings looking into Government snooping and surveillance. Finally, as Watergate unfolded, it was as if his entire career were preparatory to this ultimate confrontation with a power-hungry Chief Executive. Fighting the White House on all fronts-from Executive privilege to freedom...
Asked what he will do when he retires, Ervin said that he would admire the sunsets back home in Morganton, N.C., and do some fishing. It is more likely that he will continue to peruse his well-thumbed copy of the Constitution and keep a baleful eye on any people he suspects are trying to subvert it. Those are the fish that Senator Sam likes to catch...
MOST IMPRESSIVE DEBUT: Katharine Hepburn, who poignantly played her first TV role in The Glass Menagerie, and gave an even more varied and captivating performance as herself on the Dick Cavett Show (both ABC). Runner-up: Senator Sam Ervin as that perennial favorite, the shrewd, aw-shucks folk hero...