Remembering Gaylord.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: Ex-senator and governor of Wisconsin, Gaylord Nelson - Editorial - Obituary

I went to the July 13 memorial service for Gaylord Nelson, a giant of progressive politics. Pols, friends, and more than 600 appreciative citizens filled the rotunda in Madison to pay proper respect.

In front of a bust of Fighting Bob La Follette and a large American flag, one speaker after another saluted Nelson. They talked about how the former governor of Wisconsin, who served in the U.S. Senate for eighteen years, took on Joe McCarthy, championed civil rights, was an early and courageous opponent of the Vietnam War, an advocate of auto and tire safely, a fighter for Legal Services and for Head Start, and above all, an ardent environmentalist. Nelson was the father of Earth Day. It was his vision and his commitment that brought it about.

"Gaylord did more to protect our air, water, and earth than any other man in the country," former Vice President Walter Mondale said, adding with a bite: "And so much of what he accomplished is under scandalous attack today."

Representative David Obey praised Nelson most heartily for being one of three Senators to oppose President Johnson's 1965 appropriation for vastly expanding the Vietnam War. "If LBJ had just listened to Gaylord, there would be one less war memorial to visit in Washington, D.C., and 50,000 Americans would not have died."

To lighten the mood, Obey also quoted a line from Nelson's wife, Carrie Lee, who was asked, at her sixtieth anniversary party, what the secret of her long and successful marriage was. She responded: "We were both in love with the same man."

Obey mentioned something that was of particular interest to me, a June 1964 article in The Progressive, "Hucksters of Hate--Nazi Style," that Nelson read into the Congressional Record. That article exposed the racist and anti-Semitic yahoos that were in the National States Rights...