Joe Waggonner - Republican/Southern Democrat Coalition

Republican/Southern Democrat Coalition

In Congress, Waggonner often supported a Republican-Southern Democratic coalition on various issues, later known as the "Boll Weevils". He was fiscally conservative and opposed many federal social programs as well as civil rights legislation in 1964, 1965 and 1968. He took a "hawkish" position on the Vietnam War.

Waggonner was personally and politically close to President Nixon and opposed Nixon's impeachment over Watergate-related matters. While leading southern conservatives in the U.S. House, he wielded power with Nixon that was often reserved for the Speaker or a key committee chairman. He was an influential member of the House Ways and Means Committee and a key player the Republican president needed to get legislation passed in the House. Waggonner later revealed that he also had close contacts with Democratic Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, neither of whom were particularly popular in the 4th District.

Read more about this topic:  Joe Waggonner

Famous quotes containing the words republican, southern and/or democrat:

    ... the black woman can never forget—however lukewarm the party may to-day appear—that it was a Republican president who struck the manacles from her own wrists and gave the possibilities of manhood to her helpless little ones; and to her mind the Democratic Negro is a traitor and a time-server.
    Anna Julia Cooper (1859–1964)

    It was not a Southern watermelon that Eve took: we know it because she repented.
    Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)

    The seasick passenger on an ocean liner detests the good sailor who stalks past him 265 times a day grandly smoking a large, greasy cigar. In precisely the same way the democrat hates the man who is having a better time in the world. This is the origin of democracy. It is also the origin of Puritanism.
    —H.L. (Henry Lewis)