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Historic New Hampshire Political Scandals
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| Contributor | Chronicler |
| Last Edited | Chronicler Nov 06, 2007 06:23am |
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| Category | Amusing |
| News Date | Tuesday, November 6, 2007 12:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Dirty Laundry
By Dean Dexter
[Whole article is worth reading]
Political scandals in the Granite State are infrequent, at least compared to those of our Bay State neighbor to the south, but we do have them. Usually, you have to wait for all the affected parties to die before you really get to hang the dirty laundry out in the sun.
New Hampshire’s late Republican U.S. Senator Norris Cotton was famous for his stories and enjoyed relating this one: As a young lawyer in 1935, the governor had nominated him to be state attorney general but was unable get his nomination approved by the Executive Council. Discouraged at such a defeat early in his career, Cotton went home to Lebanon to brood. He soon received a letter from a friend who told him not to feel too badly, because once upon a time a council had also refused the nomination of the great Daniel Webster.
“I figured the council wouldn’t confirm a drunken, womanizing, carousing son of a bitch as attorney general back then, and this council wasn’t inclined to do so, either. Seeing how Webster turned out, I wasn’t going to let it bother me,” Cotton told a supporter.
In fact, Webster eventually moved from Portsmouth to Boston to seek his fortune, after serving two terms in Congress from New Hampshire. Ironically, Cotton ended up sitting at Webster’s old desk in the U.S. Senate, retiring in 1974 after also serving as N.H. House speaker and congressman.
Cotton was a colorful figure in Washington, holding forth in joyous sessions full of laugher, dining nightly with a table full of friends and staff at the University Club, near the White House. In earlier years, Cotton was not bashful with the Washington ladies, either. When he retired, Cotton told an audience, “Oh, don’t worry, since leaving the Senate, I sleep like a baby. Every couple of hours I wake up, cry for half an hour, go back to sleep. Wake up, cry for half an hour, go back to sleep…”
Many Granite Staters have distinguish |
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