It was a levi shirt that they made right there in that factory. I had to think about what am i going to wear . You dont walk across the state in a blue suit. I had this red and black plaid shirt in my closet. I went to the Friedman Army surplus and bought a dozen more. I wouldnt want to wear the same one every day. Then as i walked across the state i auctioned them off to raise money for the campaign. I knew i was doing better by the time i got to middle tennessee around nashville, one shirt went for 500. And i thought, i may have a chance to win this. I wanted to save the boots. I think one of the boots is in a museum in appalachia. They were l. L. Bean. I already had them. In july it was over 100 degrees. I would carry around a few brochures in my left hand and pass them out to people. And i wasnt paying attention. It was in newport, tennessee. Saturday morning. It was still cold. It was probably february. And i walked right in front of the pickup truck. It knocked me up over the thing. If i hadnt had boots on i would have broken my ankle for sure. The lady got out and realized what i was and said, oh, my gosh, and it had to happen in newport. I took two or three days and then i went right back to that stop. I always put an x. Because people always suspected i was taking rides. I would walk 10 or 12 miles, mark another x. Spend the night. Keep going. When i was governor, i would get stuffy the way governors get, my staff would say put your shirt on and go back out and walk with people. So even today we have an annual mule day parade, the first saturday of the year in columbia, tennessee. There might be 100,000 people there. I wear my red and black shirt and walk in the parade. The rule of thumb is walk in parades. If its the mule day parade, walk in the front. It affected everything about my political career. I dont think i would have been elected without it. Because it gave me a personality or a story that people paid attention to. It also came after i had lost a race. It was kind of like a pennance. It really put me in touch with people. If you stay in homes with people, you eat dinner around their table, you sleep in their beds, you go to their sons or daughterss softball games. You are not just making things up. You know the people that you are going to serve. During my eight years as governor, so many times if an issue came up about where weather to have stricter standards against criminals who use firearms in crimes, i can still remember stopping by a store in white county that had been robbed a earlier. And the woman who ran the store was still afraid. She kept the door locked. How are you going to operate a Grocery Store with the door locked . That stuck in my mind. So did lots of other things. I can still see the people i met a long time ago and remember the homes i stayed in. Even today i see second and third generations of families with whom i stayed in 1978. Theres a family bible in the office i had been sworn in on several times. First when the democrats pushed my predecessor out of office in 1979. My wife honey remembered to take the bible and twice as governor after that. Three times as United States senator. It goes back to about 1868. My great great grandfather fought in the civil war in our part of tennessee, the mountain part, they fought with the union most of them. They were lincoln they became lincoln republicans. People would ask my grandfather his politics. He said im a republican. I fought to save the union and i vote like i shot. I was elected governor of boyss state by a landslide of three votes. You have this Wonderful Program by the American Legion and American Legion for girls. I see rising seniors in High School Come back. But the boys makes an inaugural address. One told me they had a copy of it. I was afraid to see what i had said. One thing was about the right to work law. Im not sure why i came up with that. Except that was a big issue in tennessee in the 1950s and the 1960s. But the other thing was it proposed abolishing the ku klux klan. This was the same year that president eisenhower sent troops in to integrate Central High School in little rock. It was a year after clement sent the National Guard to help integrate Clinton High School in tennessee. And at that time boyss state was still segregated. There werent any africanamerican boys there. So it was all white. So looking back, you know, to talk about abolishing the ku klux klan in 1957 to an all white boyss state is something that im proud to be reminded of, quite frankly. And theres a letter from howard baker in your office thanking you for your participation. Is that the first time you met howard baker . Well, it is his father. Congressman howard baker. That was the district i grew up in. That was my first visit to washington. I was at boyss nation. And i didnt know where to find him. I remember now. I went over to the lunch line at the house of representatives and i asked some people which one is is congressman baker . And they pointed him out. I went over and talked to him. And he took me to lunch. And i realize now he probably couldnt get rid of me. And then he wrote me that nice note. Ill always remember that. My father had taken me to the courthouse when i was 10 years old to meet this congressman baker. And i remember when i left i thought i had probably met the most respected man other than my father and preacher. I was brought up to respect men and women who were part of public life. Howard bakers family asked me to give the eulogy at his funeral last year, which i was grateful to do. I started with one of my favorite stories from 1960 that i had always heard. Eric dirkson, his fatherinlaw, was speaking at the Illinois State fair. He was sitting at the back of the podium with dirksons daughter joy, who howard had married. And dirkson was trying to explain why the voters should elect kennedy i mean, nixon over kennedy. He said, well, all they can say about jack kennedy is he served on a p. T. Boat in world war ii. And he turned around to howard baker and said my own soninlaw, howard baker jr. Served on a p. T. Boat in 1960 in world war ii, and i never heard anyone seriously suggest he was qualified to serve in any public office. And six years later he was a new United States senator. A few years later he was the majority leader. I met him in 1966. I was a law clerk for judge wisdom in washington. And i had admired howard baker. At that time we had a oneparty system, all democratic from tennessee. I volunteered to work in his Senate Campaign in 66. I never heard from him. I was visiting there over my hometown at easter break. I went over and got an appointment in his office and volunteered for his campaign. Eventually he paid me a little bit. And then he won. So he brought me to washington with him. And i came to this very office in january of 1967. As his legislative assistant. Now that you occupy his offices, you must think about the history made him. A lot of history. I called up francis collins. He laughed a little bit. He said the call waiting name said al gore. I have the same office as baker. Al gore had the same office. Some things dont change except the senators themselves. There are quite a number of photographs in your office of you with various president s. I believe from Lyndon Johnson to barack obama. Tell us a little bit about richard nixon. What do you remember about him . I remember how private, focused, intelligent he was. I had, just by stroke of providence, i was the aide to brice haar low, his first a appointee. I literally sat in the west wing in the office of the vice president. And i had all of this wisdom from mr. Haar low. I wasnt an adviser to president nixon but i was around him a lot. I saw mr. Haar low deal with him. I remember how far reaching it was. I have on my wall notes he used in the congressional Leadership Meeting he would have on tuesdays where he described the Environmental Movement in the United States in 1970 or 71. President nixon was trying to explain the republican senators and congressman that it was coming. That was when earth day was created. Thats when senator muskie and senator baker presented the clean air and clean water acts, which passed unanimously. His Administration Even created the Environmental Protection agency, which today is is one of the agencies that republicans most detect because of its overreach. Bill clinton is a gifted person. And i know him very well. We were elected governor the same day in 1978. And he and hillary and honey, my wife and i, would see each other often at governors conferences. We worked on the same problems, on education, on roads, healthy children. Trying to help our states move ahead. Our family incomes in arkansas and tennessee were both low. I was chairman of the national governors. He was vice chairman and then chairman. So we worked a lot together. We stayed in touch. And hes always been a good friend. He invited me, for example, when i was running for president against him, he invited me to the white house to a ceremony for john wisdom for whom i had been a law clerk. He knew how special it was for me. I always liked bill clinton very much and enjoyed knowing him and hillary. What a tremendous individual. Bob teeter, who was his Campaign Manager and pollster said he is probably the only man ever elected for president for being nice. Hes also tough. And athletic as ever with his world war ii stories. But he never did brag about that. He was very understated about it. What i liked about him he was so comfortable in his own skin. He was so comfortable in what he did. For example, as the berlin wall was coming down, some of his advisers were encouraging him to go and in effect dance on the wall, take credit for this great thing the United States had done. He was wise enough not to do that. That would force gorbachev to have to respond. And he gave me a lot of freedom as education secretary to try to raise standards and encourage us to improve our Schools Community by community rather than from washington. So i always have had and do have a Great Respect for h. W. Bush. I think his presidency, as time goes on, will be valued much more highly than it even is today. If you had to pick two people, which i in fact, did when we had tennessee homecoming a statewide celebration of the 3,000 place in tennessee that people call home. I had to pick two people to be the cochair of that who symbolized tennessee. I picked mini pearl and alex haley. They were tennessee. And many wanted to be katharine hepburn. But she had a better opportunity at the grand old opry and she took it. She lived next door to the governors residence. And people ran for governor in order to live next door to minnie pearl. Alex hail sat at the foot of his steps at his grandparentss as a boy in the summertime listening to his aunts tell stories of kunta kintae. And it was those stories that took him to gambia in his search for what became the story of roots and he followed his capture. He was brought to annapolis as a slave. That became the most celebrated Television Mini series and best watch in the countrys history at the time. And he came back to tennessee in the early 80s, about the time i was governor. We were very good friends the last 12 years of his life. And ill never forget a threeweek cargo freighter trip i took with him in 1987. I was writing a book. He invited me to go with him. He always rode on cargo freighters because he was in the coast guard. He learned to ride there so he could isolate himself that way and ride. But he was a wonderful man. I was one of many speakers at miss funeral in memphis when he died in 1992. Senator alexander, thank you very much. Thank you. You can watch this and other american artifacts any time by visiting our website at cspan. Org history. With this month marking the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, president obama will meet residents. Thats live at 5 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Our look at Hurricane Katrina continues on fridays washington journal. Well hear from former mayor marc morial, jim amoss, and karen durhamaguilara. Your calls, Facebook Comments and tweets. Washington journal is live every day at 7 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan. This sunday night on q a, Brookings Institution senior fellow brown talks about the u. S. Counter insurgency in state building efforts in afghanistan. The u. S. Did achieve improvements in security but nonetheless has it ultimately been worth depends on how it ends. And the years that i hesitate that i increasingly interrogate myself and question myself, we dont know how it will end. And i think that is the moment that moment where things may collapse. But it is also possible that two, three, five years down the road we will be back in a civil war in afghanistan. Isis is now slowly emerging in the country. Terrifying prospect that it is. Much worse than the taliban. The taliban is deeply entrenched. If we end up five years down the road in a new civil war in afghanistan, a new safe havens for the taliban and isis, i will say it was not worth the price. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern and pacific on cspans q a. To mark the 150th anniversary of the surrender of lee to grant april 9th, 1965, the National Parks service invited hundreds of experts to camp at the National Historic park in virginia. American history tv visited the park the learn about a reconstructed traveling blacksmith forge. When we stopped by, the black smith was just starting ale fire
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