JUSIPER

 
Remembering Alex Sanders

Posted by Sini

Who in better times would have defeated Lindsey Graham to take over Strom Thurmond's seat in 2002. A great university president, judge, and South Carolinian.

Quotes:

"I don't like to mix religion and politics, but Jesus didn't ride into Jerusalem on an elephant."

“We are all loyal Americans, and we are privileged to live in a country like no other country in the world. For various reasons, mainly by accidental birth, we choose to live in the reddest of red states. We laugh today to keep from crying.”

More:

When Thurmond retired from the Senate, Democrat Alex Sanders sought Thurmond's seat. If Sanders had won, South Carolina would've been represented by Hollings and Sanders, achieving the distinction of having arguably the two funniest members of the US Senate serving the state.

As Sanders campaigned, he would often tell the story of the Jewish fellow who left South Carolina, moved to New York and became a Communist. Eventually, he returned home and ran a store in a small town full of Klansmen. The FBI threatened to expose him to his neighbors if he didn't cooperate with the bureau's investigation of Communist activists. On his way home, the man saw an old-fashioned Gospel tent meeting, where he accepted Jesus as his savior and confessed all his sins, including having been a Communist.

"Well," Sanders said, "people in the South just love those who have fallen into sin and ask forgiveness. And Klansmen don't have much sympathy for the FBI. He never had any trouble in town after that."

Joe Klein's terrific New Yorker profile here.

2:55 PM |