Inside the Beltway

Fixing wagons

Strom Thurmond is gone, and it’s not likely he’ll ever be forgotten.

Freshman Rep. J. Gresham Barrett, South Carolina Republican, has introduced legislation to name the new Capitol Visitor Center after the legendary senator, who was 100 years old and barely into retirement when presented his final reward on June 26.

“Senator Thurmond’s middle name was ‘constituent service,’ and it seems only fitting that we name the new visitor center after the nation’s most dedicated and longest-serving elected official,” Mr. Barrett says.

The one thing the freshman heard repeatedly at Mr. Thurmond’s funeral was that “if someone had a problem, the first person they called was Senator Thurmond and they never had to call anyone else.”

And when Mr. Thurmond teamed up with longtime colleague Sen. Ernest F. Hollings, South Carolina Democrat, the two really pulled some strings.

Like when Hurricane Hugo struck their state, and the two senators traveled home to view the tremendous destruction to homes and businesses. But owing to lack of electricity and a means of communicating, Mr. Hollings decided he could do more by being in Washington, and flew back that evening.

“I got on the phone to FEMA, and I outlined the needs for generators, food, water, tents,” Mr. Hollings recalled, and Robert Morris, then acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, “said, ‘Senator, you don’t understand the procedure.’

“I said, ‘What procedure?’

“He says, ‘You know you are supposed to get the mayor to advertise, and if he can’t find two contractors to do the job, to satisfy the needs, then he bucks the request up to the governor and the governor does a similar thing. He surveys and gets two refusals, and then they come to Washington.’

“I said, ‘Are you serious?’

“He said, ‘Of course.’

“I said, ‘You are crazy,’ and I hung up and called [Marine Corps Commandant General Alfred Gray Jr.], who was out at the time on the Army Navy golf course. I said, ‘General, the ox is in the ditch,’ and I outlined it. He said, ‘Don’t worry.’”

Within 36 hours, Mr. Hollings returned to South Carolina, and already hard at work was Gen. Gray’s second-in-command, who had made the trip from the Quantico Marine Corps Base outside Washington.

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