[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 117 (Wednesday, July 16, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1479-E1480]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     CONGRATULATING CHARLIE DANIEL

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR.

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 16, 2008

  Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, one of the finest men I know, Charlie 
Daniel, has now completed 5 years as a newspaper editorial cartoonist 
in my hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee.
  Charlie is one of Knoxville's most popular and respected citizens. 
Almost every morning for all these years, people in East Tennessee have 
been inspired or made angry by, or perhaps simply have laughed at one 
of his cartoons.
  He has certainly helped bring about better government through his 
work, but the laughter is all right, too. There is not enough good 
humor in the political process today.
  I have one of his cartoons hanging in my Knoxville office and two are 
on the wall of my home. I have many favorites among his work, but I 
will give just two examples.
  The first showed a father reading a newspaper with the headline 
``Americans Hire Illegals to Do Work They Don't Want to Do.'' Then it 
showed a little boy with his arm around an obviously Hispanic little 
boy, with the first boy saying, ``I hired Juan to do my homework.''
  The second showed a man with a clipboard standing at the front door 
of the home of a very angry man who said, ``Well it's about time 
someone came to ask my opinion,'' and the man with the clipboard said, 
``Sir, I'm just here to read your meter.''
  Charlie worked from 1958 until the early 1990s at the Knoxville 
Journal, which for most of its history was our morning daily newspaper. 
When the Journal closed, he began to work for the Knoxville News 
Sentinel where he remains today.
  I worked at the Journal in 1968 and 1969, hired by the longtime 
editor, Guy Smith, who also was the man who hired Charlie.
  The Journal in those days gave titles easier than they gave money, 
and I was the Assistant State Editor, working under a woman named 
Juanita Glenn.
  Last year I was interviewed in my Washington office by a reporter for 
the Wall Street Journal. As we walked out, I told her I had once been 
Assistant State Editor for the Knoxville Journal. I didn't tell her 
that among my duties were the TV logs and the obituaries.
  The Journal newsroom in those days had the most colorful cast of 
characters I have ever been around.
  The corner of my desk touched the desk of Dick Evans, the morning 
editor and a great journalist. I will never forget how he slammed down 
his phone after every phone call, no matter whether it was a good call 
or bad.
  Others who I remember so well who worked at the Journal besides 
Charlie, were Steve Humphrey, Tom Sweeten, Byron Drinnon, Bill Vaughan, 
Sam Venable, Dudley Brewer, Pat Fields, Bob Adams, Bill Bolus, Jim 
Skelton, Ben Byrd, Russ Bebb, Ted Griffith, Al Roberts, Hugh Lunsford, 
Tom Greene, Doug Price, Raymond Flowers, and Margie Trent.
  Ron McMahan, Ralph Griffith, and Margaret Underwood, all of whom I 
knew very well, had left before I worked at the Journal to work in 
Washington for Senator Howard Baker. One of my longtime best friends, 
Bill Vaughan, later left to work for Congressman Jimmy Quillen, and 
even Dick Evans left to work for the Department of Commerce.
  A few days ago, Sam Venable, now a longtime columnist for the 
Knoxville News Sentinel and also a former Journal employee, wrote a 
wonderful column in tribute to Charlie.
  I would like to congratulate Charlie on 50 great years in the news 
business and also thank him for his service to our community in many 
ways.
  Madam Speaker, in closing, I would request that the Sam Venable 
column about Charlie Daniel be reprinted in the Record at this point, 
and I would like to call it to the attention of my colleagues and other 
readers of the Record.

                     50 Years and Still on the Job

                            (By Sam Venable)

       One of the most poignant cartoons Charlie Daniel ever 
     produced wasn't a drawing at all.
       It ran on the editorial page of the old Knoxville Journal 
     on Saturday, Nov. 23, 1968, two days after the death of the 
     newspaper's legendary editor.
       ``Today I find my limited talents fall far too short of 
     paying proper tribute to Guy L. Smith--a great man,'' Daniel 
     wrote in his signature block letters. ``I shall miss his 
     insight, his leadership and his humor--but most of all I 
     shall miss the man who gave me the opportunity to fill this 
     space each day.''
       That was the first and only time Charlie found himself at a 
     loss for an image. Pretty decent statement about a 50-year 
     career that has produced an estimated 15,000 cartoons and 
     four books.
       ``I really was stymied,'' Charlie recalled of that moment 
     four decades ago. ``It was very personal for me. Here was the 
     guy who gave me my shot at a time when newspaper editorial 
     cartooning was at a low point.''
       Alas, the cycle has come around to an even lower ebb. 
     Charlie, who joined the News Sentinel staff after the 
     Journal's closure in 1992, is one of only 80 newspaper 
     editorial cartoonists working in America today. Theirs never 
     was a populous force, but at the craft's peak in the 1960s 
     and '70s, nearly 300 were using their skills to poke, prod, 
     tweak and guide the nation's conscience. Usually with a 
     laugh.
       Fortunately for readers of the News Sentinel, this 78-year-
     old treasure has no intention of setting his pens aside.
       ``I'll stay as long as the light bulb comes on,'' Charlie 
     laughed. ``I have no hobbies. I don't fish or paint or play 
     golf. If I retired, I'd just go home and bug Patsy (his wife 
     of 54 years). We have trouble making it through a weekend.''
       You'll soon be reading, seeing and hearing a lot about 
     Charlie Daniel. The News Sentinel is celebrating his golden 
     anniversary this month in a variety of ways.
       In next Sunday's Life and Arts section, staff writer Amy 
     McRary will profile the life of her fellow Tar Heel. On the 
     same day, our Perspective pages will showcase some of his 
     classics.
       Readers are invited to join the festivities as well. A 
     display of Daniel drawings through the years graces our lobby 
     at 2332 News Sentinel Drive, just off Western Avenue. It'll 
     be open to the public 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday through 
     September.
       As one of the few journalists who served with Charlie at 
     both the Journal and News Sentinel, I'm qualified to propose 
     Daniel trivia. Such as:
       --Why is the plaque he won for highway safety awareness 
     inscribed to ``I. Daniel''?
       (Because he used to put a double descender on the ``D'' on 
     his tag line, and it looked like an ``I.'' To keep from 
     embarrassing the highway officials, he really should have 
     changed his name to Ignatius.)
       --What was the ghastly mixture of pipe tobacco he used to 
     fog the Journal newsroom with before kicking his smoking 
     habit?
       (Half-and-half and some fancy-smancy aromatic blend neither 
     of us could immediately recall after all these years; 
     fittingly, Charlie termed it ``Half-and-Half-and-the-Other-
     Half.'')
       Obviously, it has been a joy to work alongside Charlie at 
     both newspapers. And I mean ``alongside'' literally.
       As a college student in the late 1960s, my Journal police 
     reporter desk sat an arm's length away from his drawing room. 
     Here in the News Sentinel's new building, Chas and I reside 
     in neighboring cubicles. I call it the Geezer Quad.
       That's going to change in a few weeks when our newsroom 
     undergoes a fruit basket turnover desk rearrangement--one of 
     those New Age efficiency initiatives the suits dream up over 
     noon martinis.
       Charlie will be moving into the old business news 
     department, which is shuffling to heaven-knows-where, while 
     I'll be going over to his old cubicle. This is called 
     progress.
       But I maintain nothing will change, because Charlie, 
     dangnabbit, will still be closer to the window and thus will 
     have greater access to the muse who delivers inspiration on a 
     daily basis.
       Hey, I need the muse! Not Charlie! This guy swims in 
     creative juices!

[[Page E1480]]

       Charlie shows up around 7:30 a.m. and spends several hours 
     scanning newspapers, journals and magazines. Then he doodles 
     with the vast array of ideas the %$#@! muse has dumped into 
     his lap, cranks out three or four potential cartoons for the 
     next day, decides on one, colors it and saunters out the 
     front door, carefree as a hoppy toad.
       I, on the other hand, am lucky to wake up in time to grab 
     lunch, pour a cup of coffee, exchange office gossip with 
     colleagues, compare fishing stories over the phone with 
     friends, e-mail the latest bawdy jokes I've heard to everyone 
     in my address book, drink more coffee, loudly curse the moron 
     who didn't rebrew coffee, check my parlay sheets, drink even 
     more coffee--and then type myself into a furious, sweaty, 
     nail-biting panic till deadline, milking the lone thread of 
     creativity I stole from someone else until it is toast-dry. 
     Is this fair?
       OK, so here's the serious truth: Charlie Daniel is blessed 
     with the quickest wit this side of Hollywood. Plus the 
     ability to take that humor, reduce it to a drawing and zing 
     his point home in a panel the size of a Kleenex.
       Try it sometime. After you've spent a week in frustration, 
     you might understand how difficult the task is day after day, 
     year after year.
       Yet he dismisses the silly notion that he's ever had a real 
     job.
       ``I'm doing what I did in the second grade,'' he says. 
     ``I've never gone high-tech. I still draw with a pen and 
     paper, not on a computer screen.''
       Perhaps. But you don't stay on top of this game without a 
     keen eye for news and a comedian's sense of timing.
       ``Some of my earlier work was overdone,'' he said. ``I've 
     learned to know when to quit a drawing. Just make your point 
     and stop.
       ``Also, editorial cartoons have a short life span. Next 
     week, somebody might look at it and say, `What the heck was 
     that all about?' At the same time, you can't be too quick 
     with an idea or else you'll be ahead of the public.''
       An excellent example occurred recently when NASA announced 
     it was sending plumbing materials to the International Space 
     Station to fix a broken toilet. The next morning, Charlie's 
     cartoon showed a giant plunger blasting off. When confused 
     readers began calling, he realized he'd struck too soon.
       ``I probably should have given that one a day or two 
     more,'' he said. ``But you're always juggling with the fact 
     that bloggers and late-night TV folks are already using the 
     same material.''
       Let me tell you a few things I've learned about ``Cholly'' 
     after working with him over most of 40 years:
       The same fellow who has rubbed shoulders with presidents 
     and barons of commerce is one of the most laid-back, down-to-
     earth, genuine nice guys you'll ever meet.
       He can, and often does, make a serious point without having 
     to dip his pen into poison ink.
       He is a five-time nominee for journalism's highest award, 
     the Pulitzer Prize.
       He is soft-spoken, leads a quiet life of humble service to 
     society's lost and downtrodden, and is quick to laugh at 
     himself.
       He takes immense delight in sharing with me visceral hate 
     mail from the occasional reader who either misunderstood a 
     cartoon or was its most-deserved target. Or, as one nutty 
     reviewer ranted in misplaced criticism of country music 
     legend Charlie Daniels (with an ``s''), ``I hate your music, 
     too!''
       I was sitting in the audience in 2005 for a humor-in-
     politics seminar hosted by the Howard Baker Center at the 
     University of Tennessee. The panel featured some of the 
     nation's most noted political wits, including the late 
     syndicated columnist Art Buchwald.
       Ask anyone who saw this performance: The others were funny, 
     but Charlie brought the house down with self-deprecating 
     lines, one after another.
       That same shy attitude is reflected when he talks about the 
     impact of his editorial cartoons:
       ``I'd be happy hitting .350.''
       Trust me, his batting average is exceedingly higher. Ol' 
     Ignatius Daniel has made journalism's All-Star roster 50 
     years straight--and counting.

                          ____________________