[angelize56]

A place to post obits for those who have passed on in the political world as not everyone reads the "In Memoriam" thread in random. Take care. angel

Angry TV host, De Mornay father dead
Wally George was a pioneer in 'combat TV'
Tuesday, October 7, 2003 Posted: 12:10 PM EDT (1610 GMT)

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, California (AP) -- Conservative talk show host Wally George, who sparred with liberal guests for two decades on "Hot Seat," died Sunday of pneumonia. He was 71.

George, the father of actress Rebecca De Mornay, had been at the hospital for three months due to complications from cancer.

George's combative television show, broadcast on KDOC-TV in Anaheim, rose to popularity in the 1980s. He called his approach "combat TV" and was known for interrupting guests by shouting insults at them.

George told the Los Angeles Times in 1984 that fans saw him as a "down-to-earth guy who's speaking not so much from a highly intelligent brain but who's speaking from his heart and gut."

Born George Walter Pearch in Oakland to a former vaudeville actress and the owner of a shipping company, George moved to Hollywood with his mother and at age 14 became a disc jockey with KIEV-AM in Glendale.

He hosted "The Wally George Show" on Inglewood radio and was a producer and co-host of "The Sam Yorty Show" before "Hot Seat" premiered in 1983.

KDOC has been airing reruns of the show since George underwent surgery in June to remove a bone near his spine that had disintegrated because of cancer. He said at the time the problem was discovered by doctors after a fall in his Garden Grove home.

[Mulderator]

I thought this thread was for Grey Davis!

[shortnpretty]

lmsao......I did too Mulder!!!!

[angelize56]

Dang it you two! I was making an obit related to him...you blew my joke!

Deceased: The Late Gray Davis California Governorship and Propositions 53 and 54. Passed away on Tuesday October 7, 2003 of unnatural causes. Survived by elated Republicans, an $8 billion deficit, persistent unemployment, struggling schools, and, as ex-Governor Davis knows all too well, angry and mobilized voters.

[angelize56]

Published: Aug 14, 2004
Modified: Aug 14, 2004 3:17 PM

Former U.S. Rep. William D. Ford dies

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

YPSILANTI TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - Former U.S. Rep. William D. Ford, a Democrat who spent three decades on Capitol Hill and dedicated himself to expanding educational opportunities for children, has died. He was 77.

Ford died early Saturday at his home of complications from a stroke he suffered about six weeks ago, said Adam Benson, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. John D. Dingell, D-Dearborn.

A House member from 1965 to 1995, Ford served as Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor and as Chairman of the House Committee on Post Office and Civil Service.

"He believed that the government has an obligation to give its citizens a chance at success," Dingell's office said in a statement. "He worked every day of his life to be the champion of the working poor and the middle class."

He authored the Middle Income Student Assistance Act and the Plant Closing Act and orchestrated the passage of the Family Medical Leave Act. In 1994 The Federal Direct Student Loan Program was named for him.

Ford was the oldest child of immigrant Scottish parents and the first member of his family to attend college. Following his service in the U.S. Navy, he attended the University of Denver of the GI Bill.

He was a delegate to the Michigan Constitutional Convention and a member of the Michigan Senate prior to representing Michigan's 15th and 13th Congressional Districts.

Ford is survived by three children, three grandchildren, a sister and a brother.

[angelize56]

Shirley Chisholm dies at age 80
First black woman elected to Congress fought for minorities
Monday, January 3, 2005 Posted: 7:09 AM EST (1209 GMT)

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- Shirley Chisholm, an advocate for minority rights who became the first black woman elected to Congress and later the first black person to seek a major party's nomination for the U.S. presidency, has died. The Rev. Jesse Jackson called her a "woman of great courage."

Chisholm, who took her seat in the U.S. House in 1969, was a riveting speaker who often criticized Congress as being too clubby and unresponsive. An outspoken champion of women and minorities during seven terms in the House, she also was a staunch critic of the Vietnam War.

Details of her death on Saturday were not immediately available. She was 80.

Chisholm ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972, a campaign that was viewed as more symbolic than practical. She won 152 delegates before withdrawing from the race.

"I ran for the Presidency, despite hopeless odds, to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo," Chisholm said in her book "The Good Fight." "The next time a woman runs, or a black, a Jew or anyone from a group that the country is 'not ready' to elect to its highest office, I believe that he or she will be taken seriously from the start."

Chisholm represented New York's Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn and served until retiring in 1983. She also was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

"She was an activist and she never stopped fighting," Jackson told The Associated Press from Ohio. "She refused to accept the ordinary, and she had high expectations for herself and all people around her."

Newly elected, she was assigned to the House Agriculture Committee, which she felt was irrelevant to her urban constituency. In an unheard of move, she demanded reassignment and got switched to the Veterans Affairs Committee.

Not long afterward she voted for Hale Boggs, who was white, over John Conyers, who was black, for majority leader. Boggs rewarded her with a place on the prized Education and Labor Committee and she was its third ranking member when she left.

"My greatest political asset, which professional politicians fear, is my mouth, out of which come all kinds of things one shouldn't always discuss for reasons of political expediency," she told voters.

During her failed presidential bid, Chisholm went to the hospital to visit George Wallace, her rival candidate and ideological opposite, after he had been shot -- an act that appalled her followers.

"He said, `What are your people going to say?' I said: 'I know what they're going to say. But I wouldn't want what happened to you to happen to anyone.' He cried and cried," she recalled.

And when she needed support to extend the minimum wage to domestic workers two years later, it was Wallace who got her the votes from Southern members of Congress.

"She was our Moses that opened the Red Sea for us," said Robert E. Williams, president of Flagler County's branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

In her book, "Unbought and Unbossed," she recounted the campaign that brought her to Congress and wrote of her concerns about that body:

"Our representative democracy is not working because the Congress that is supposed to represent the voters does not respond to their needs. I believe the chief reason for this is that it is ruled by a small group of old men."

Chisholm's leadership traits were recognized by her parents early on. Born Shirley St. Hill in New York City, on November 30, 1924, she was the eldest of four daughters of Caribbean immigrants.

She began her professional career as a nursery school teacher, eventually becoming director of a day care center, and later serving as an educational consultant with the city's child care department. She became active in local Democratic politics and ran successfully for the state Assembly in 1964.

She bested James Farmer, the former national chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality, to gain the House seat in 1968.

"I am the people's politician," she said at the time. "If the day should ever come when the people can't save me, I'll know I'm finished."

After leaving Congress, Chisholm was named to the Purington Chair at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, where she taught for four years. In later years she was a sought-after speaker on the lecture circuit.

"Whether you agree with her politics or not, she had a moral compass," said Shola Lynch, director of "Chisholm '72: Unbought and Unbossed," a documentary on her presidential campaign. "Why I was attracted to her story was because in some ways she's an average American woman who evolved into a a strong and courageous politician."

Chisholm was married twice. Her 1949 marriage to Conrad Chisholm ended in divorce in February, 1977. Later that year she wed Arthur Hardwick Jr., who died in 1986. She had no children.

"She was a mouthpiece for the underdog, the poor, underprivileged people, the people who did not have much of a chance," 88-year-old Conrad Chisholm told the AP early Monday from West Palm Beach.

Once discussing what her legacy might be, Shirley Chisholm commented, "I'd like them to say that Shirley Chisholm had guts. That's how I'd like to be remembered."

[angelize56]

Congressman dies of rare disease
Rep. Robert Matsui went from internment camp to Congress
Monday, January 3, 2005 Posted: 7:15 AM EST (1215 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Word of the death of Rep. Robert T. Matsui has prompted an outpouring of praises from Washington and California political figures, all honoring a former Japanese-American prisoner during World War II who went on to serve 26 years in Congress.

Matsui died of complications from a rare disease Saturday night at Bethesda Naval Hospital outside Washington, D.C., his family said Sunday. He was 63.

In a statement, President Bush called Matsui "a dedicated public servant and a good and decent man who served with distinction" in Congress, adding, "Laura and I send our prayers and condolences."

Matsui was an attorney who became a City Council member in 1971 before winning election to the capital city's solidly Democratic fifth congressional district in 1978. He juggled political and policy roles during more than a quarter-century in Congress, most recently serving as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee where he headed the party's unsuccessful effort to regain control of the House.

He also was the third-ranking Democrat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, where he was his party's point man on Social Security legislation.

In a statement announcing Matsui's death, his office disclosed that the congressman had been diagnosed several months ago with myelodysplastic disorder, an often-fatal form of bone marrow cancer. The congressman's family said he entered the hospital on December 24 with pneumonia.

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer called herself "shocked and despondent" over Matsui's death, saying in a statement, "He has been part of my political life for more than 20 years, and he represented the best in politics."

Matsui was born in 1941. The following year, his family was among the Japanese-Americans forced into internment camps during World War II. Decades later, he helped pass legislation which apologized for the internment policy and provided compensation for the survivors. In a 1988 speech to his congressional colleagues, Matsui said he was motivated by "the tears and painful remembrances of internees."

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein called Matsui as "a master of balanced, practical public policy" and praised his successful efforts to seek legislative redress for other Japanese-Americans who had been interned during War II.

Former President Clinton and his wife, U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, said in a statement, "Bob Matsui leaves behind a rich legacy of service that improved the lives of his own constituents, all Americans, and people throughout the world."

California's Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, also praised Matsui in a statement, saying, "Today, all Californians mourn the loss of this tremendous individual and man of integrity." Schwarzenegger will call a special election for a new representative in his Sacramento-area district.

Matsui was recently re-elected with ease to his 14th term. His wife, Doris, was until 1998 a deputy director of public liaison in the Clinton White House. He is also survived by a son, Brian.

In his hometown Sunday, Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo described Matsui as "our voice, our advocate, our leader" in ensuring federal support for flood control, light rail, transportation, housing and parks projects in the city of 418,000 people.

"His loss obviously goes well beyond Sacramento, but I think it's felt strongest here," she said.

Matsui generally supported Democratic legislation, but his support for global trade legislation put him at odds with members of his party on some high-profile measures.

As senior Democrat on the subcommittee on Social Security, Matsui gave every impression during the final few weeks of his life of being eager to lead the opposition to Bush's plans to establish personal retirement accounts as part of a general overhaul of the program.

"With the passing of Bob Matsui, our country has lost a great leader and America's seniors have lost their best friend in Congress," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, a friend and fellow Californian, said in a statement.

Incoming Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada recalled Matsui as "a champion for the underdog who was the same kind, gracious man no matter how far he rose in Congress and in life."

[Rep]

Originally Posted by Mulder

I thought this thread was for Grey Davis!

I thought it was for me!!!

[angelize56]

Rep: Awwww.....don't feel that way! Your political future is far from over! Why I'd vote for you for President if you could run in 2008!

[poochee]

angelize, This thread is a good idea!

[Rep]

Originally Posted by angelize56

Rep: Awwww.....don't feel that way! Your political future is far from over! Why I'd vote for you for President if you could run in 2008!

That's two of us Angel....I will continue to work on my wife. Maybe I can get to vote for me this time.


Now, send me a gazillion $'s.

[angelize56]

He isn't dead...but Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's career is headed that way! The more I hear about him...the more corrupt I think he is! First he gets Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings to practically lie for him and take the fall for him about the Lincoln Navigator he said he didn't lease for personal reasons...but it was proven he did...like his wife needs to be chauffered around town in a Navigator that was leased for $25,000! Then our local 7 news exposes other things about him and he calls the reporter...live on tv...a "sleazeball"! He's squirming now! Then the 7 reporter finds out Kwame has charged over a quarter million dollars on his city issued credit card the past three years! Entertaining his friends out of town! I think he cut a check back to the city for $8000....what about the other $242,000 And NOW he is threatening to cancel the July 4th Detroit fireworks because he doesn't agree with the proposed city council budget cuts! I'd say his chances of getting re-elected are squat!

[angelize56]

The only good thing I can say about Kwame is he refuses to pass a budget that lays off police and firemen!

[angelize56]

Retired U.S. Rep. J.J. Pickle Dead at 91

Saturday, June 18, 2005 9:02 p.m. ET

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Retired U.S. Rep. J.J. "Jake" Pickle, who helped pass major Social Security reform in the 1980s and was a senior Democrat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee during three decades in Congress, died Saturday. He was 91.

Pickle died at his home, his family said in a statement.

He was elected in 1963 to the House seat Lyndon B. Johnson once held. As chairman of the Social Security Subcommittee, he helped pass Social Security reform in 1983 that eased the system's financial woes by raising the age for full benefits from 65 to 67.

On his first day in Washington as a newly elected congressman, President Johnson sent a limousine to greet Pickle at the airport with a surprise invitation to sleep at the White House.

Pickle refused, explaining he had already lined up accommodations with a friend.

"I was raised in West Texas. If you accept an invitation, you're going to do it, you know. So I did it," Pickle said later.

His home phone number was always listed, and he returned to Austin most weekends to answer calls. The nonstop Braniff flight from Washington to Austin was nicknamed "The Pickle Express," and he was known to work the aisle as if each flight were a political rally.

"Other than the long commute to and from Washington and, starting in the 1980s, the increasing partisanship of Congress, there was little I didn't like about being Congressman Pickle," he wrote in his 1997 book, "Jake."

Pickle was a Naval officer during World War II, serving in the Pacific. He survived three torpedo attacks. He returned to Austin after the war and, with other veterans, started a radio station, still known as KVET.

Republican Gov. Rick Perry said Pickle's "strong, steady hand helped shape the Central Texas area we so love today."

[LANMaster]

Dick Durbin's political career officially dead.
Finally going the way of Tommy Daschle.