across the aisle. he was friendly with president reagan, who of course is a republican. he was known to go golfing with dan quayle. meanwhile, his fellow democrats, they all loved him. they chose to elevate him into leadership by the end of just his second term in the senate, he was the number three democrat in the whole senate. everybody liked him, got along with everybody, al the pal. in 1991, when president george bush nominated clarence thomas to the supreme court, this democratic senator from illinois, alan dixon, he made a personal promise to president bush that he would vote yes. that he would vote for that supreme court nominee. it's interesting. senator dixon didn't make that promise public at the time. years later he would explain that when the nomination was initially made, he had made that promise to the president, but his constituents didn't know that at the time. and it probably wouldn't have been an issue. what ultimately made it a problem is that al dixon had made that promise to president bush for how he would vote on