Big Jim Eastland: The Godfather of Mississippi by J. Lee Annis Jr

Author:J. Lee Annis Jr. [Annis, J. Lee Jr.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Political, Politics
ISBN: 9781496830845
Google: V_2JzQEACAAJ
Goodreads: 53217466
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Published: 2020-12-11T06:43:41+00:00

CHAPTER 14

The Best Chairman

THE ONE AREA WHERE JIM EASTLAND TRULY DISTINGUISHED HIMSELF IN the eyes of his peers was at the helm of the Judiciary Committee. “You will have the best chairman in the Senate,” Nicholas Katzenbach told liberal Maryland Republican Charles McCurdy “Mac” Mathias, after Mathias learned he would get a seat on that panel in 1969. In any given year, the Judiciary Committee conducted between 45 and 60 percent of all Senate committee business, handling everything from antitrust matters to the confirmation of every nominee to a federal prosecutorial office or judgeship in every state and territory. Civil rights issues were most often the salient ones during the first decade of Eastland’s chairmanship. While the Washington Post opined when he retired that he did all he could to “block or retard the … liberation of his region and then of the country as a whole from the shackles of government-sanctioned, culturally blessed institutional racism,” their frequently liberal editorial board also saluted him for a standard of fairness that successors like Edward Kennedy would be “hard-pressed” to uphold. Playing it “fair down the line” was as much a strategy as a practice for Eastland. “Because he is so zealous in interpreting the rules fairly,” Courtney Pace wrote, “they cannot become irked when he uses those same rules themselves.” Eastland, one liberal declared thankfully, was “not like some of those high-minded ones who beat you by calling a vote when you are in the men’s room.”1

Still, in the eyes of some like Ernest F. “Fritz” Hollings of South Carolina, Eastland “controlled that committee,” in part by crafting a gruff public image. His chief prop was a cigar, and he was quite generous in sharing his Havana treats with favored colleagues like Robert and Edward Kennedy and committee staffers like Rufus Edmisten, Sam Ervin’s eyes and ears. At executive sessions, some lit up less expensive stogies that would fill the room in a manner that brought to mind the oft-derided smoke-filled rooms of a previous century. The air was thick enough one day that Howard Metzenbaum, the fairly junior Ohio liberal, looked at Joseph Biden, the first member he spotted, and asked him to put “that out.” Yet while the air remained thick and musty, the only one puffing when Metzenbaum made his request was Eastland. Metzenbaum backed off when he recognized this was the case. “Oh, not you, Mr. Chairman,” he backslid sheepishly.2

The prime executive branch nominee who came under the purview of his committee was the attorney general. Eastland, from the moment each nominee was chosen, took care to create a collegial relationship with all who would serve as the chief law enforcement officer of the American government. In his initial meeting with each, he made it clear that he needed two promises. He urged them to keep his friend John Duffner high on their staff, for Duffner had long been his top source of information on who was being considered for judgeships. And, he insisted that they return his phone calls.

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