J. Don Salcedo
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
I found a good book to read during these winter days that I would recommend to anyone: "Call Me Tom: The Life of Thomas Eagleton," by James N. Giglio.
I am sorry to say I never voted for Eagleton when he ran for the U.S. Senate because as a young man I was influenced by some of the men who ran the newspaper in St. Joseph at that time. I worked my way through college working 44 hours a week at minimum wage at the newspaper. Back in those days the St. Joseph newspaper had a state reporter who spent every Tuesday through Thursday down in Jefferson City. Instead of phoning in his story like he usually did, he would come up to the newsroom and le his story late afternoon or early Thursday evenings. He would regale the office staff with stories about Eagleton and some of the folks at the capital.
James Giglio's book on the life of Thomas Eagleton appears to be a good, objective, well-documented, and researched piece of work. Several times I must say, as I read the book it brought tears to my eyes. Thomas Eagleton does not get enough credit for all the good things he did for the people. Not just in Missouri, but the whole country.
The word limit of my LTE does not permit me to list all of the moderate Republicans he worked with across the aisle to pass some good legislation during the Nixon and Reagan years that benefited the American people. Eagleton said he lost a lot of good friends in the Senate when they lost their seat in Congress after being labeled a RINO. The RINOs in the Republican Party today in my opinion are white nationalists that blindly follow the lying, cheating, racist demigod in the White House, who is a white nationalist, in my opinion.
U.S. Sens. Blunt and Hawley do not hold a candle to Eagleton. The way this country is going, I do not think we shall see the likes of a U.S. senator like Eagleton again.