The Mother Road

I wrote two days ago about Larry Pressler’s baptism. I said he's a former senator, but there’s more to his story than that. It occurs to me much of my audience isn’t old enough to remember the event that first put him in the limelight. Senator Pressler was new to D.C. in 1980 when undercover F.B.I. agents offered bribes to members of Congress. (If you’re curious about it, Google “Abscam Sting.”) Pressler was the only member contacted who turned them down flat. “I turned down an illegal contribution,” he later said. “What have we come to if that's considered heroic?” Larry Pressler also served his country in the military (he served two combat tours in Vietnam), in the law, and as a teacher. You don’t call this sort of person a politician. You call him a statesman.