[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 122 (Tuesday, September 15, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1718]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          TRIBUTE TO FORMER ALABAMA GOVERNOR GEORGE C. WALLACE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. TERRY EVERETT

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 15, 1998

  Mr. EVERETT. Mr. Speaker, I wish to pay tribute to the memory of one 
of America's political legends and one of my home State's greatest 
sons, George Corley Wallace.
  The 79-year-old former four-term Alabama Governor and Presidential 
candidate passed away on September 13 in Montgomery after a sudden 
illness. Governor Wallace was a native of Clio in my congressional 
district.
  There are few names which engender more passion in American politics 
than that of George Wallace. While the former Governor is remembered by 
many for his strong and controversial views on a number of social 
issues during a very difficult period in our Nation's history, his 
greatest legacy--his role in laying the foundation for modern 
conservatism--is often overlooked.
  As Alabama political columnist Bob Ingram points out, Wallace was 
quite fond of a 1980 New York Times editorial stating that Ronald 
Reagan ``sailed into the White House on the tide that George Wallace 
discovered.''
  The famous ``Reagan Democrat'' phenomenon was a likely result of the 
growing conservative political culture which George Wallace expertly 
marshalled during his bids for the White House more than a decade 
earlier. Many of George Wallace's stands on State's rights and less 
government helped to pave the way for the eventual shift of southern 
Democrats to the modern Republican party.
  As a newspaper reporter and later as a publisher in Alabama at the 
time of Wallace's tenure as Governor, I reported some of the history 
that he helped create. While, I didn't always agree with the Governor, 
I never lost respect for his remarkable political skills.
  His brave recuperation from an assassination attempt and his 
remarkable reconciliation with his former political rivals of the Civil 
Rights era certainly galvanized George Wallace's role in history as one 
of America's most adept politicians.
  The legacy of George Wallace's popular conservatism is very much 
alive today. I am glad that he was able to see his commonsense 
government ideals rise to the top of the national agenda even though 
fate did not allow the skilled political boxer from Barbour County, AL, 
to fight the last round.

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