Voting Station

Russell B. Long

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U.S. Senator

The Resume

    (November 3, 1918-May 9, 2003)
    Born in Shreveport, Louisiana
    US Senator from Louisiana (1948-87)
    Senate Majority Whip (1965-69)
    Chair of the Senate Finance Committee (1965-81)
    Democrat
    Son of Huey P. Long

Why he might be annoying:

    He drank heavily and sometimes appeared drunk on the Senate floor, once having to be propped up between two other senators so he could make a quorum call (1963).
    He was one of a dozen southern senators who refused to attend the Democratic National Convention in order to protest the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
    During a plane trip, he told Jim Garrison 'That dog won't hunt' regarding the lone gunman theory, thus eventually inflicting Oliver Stone's 'JFK' on the nation.
    He and fellow Louisiana politician Hale Boggs agreed to use their influence to grant an anti-trust exemption for the merger of the NFL and AFL in return for Pete Rozelle agreeing that the next expansion franchise would go to New Orleans.
    He described a loophole as 'Something that benefits the other guy. If it benefits you, it's tax reform.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He stopped drinking during the 1970s.
    He created the Earned Income Tax Credit, which was called 'the nation's most effective anti-poverty program for working families.'
    He used the tax laws to encourage employee stock ownership plans.
    He said he and his father both wanted to help the poor, but the difference was, 'He wanted to tax it away from those who had it. I wouldn't keep anybody rich from getting richer.'
    He wielded so much power that the Wall Street Journal called him 'the fourth branch of government.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 12 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 7 Votes: 28.57% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 18 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 16 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 159 Votes: 53.46% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 19 Votes: 63.16% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 51 Votes: 78.43% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 19 Votes: 52.63% Annoying