was moving and credible. judge thomas s denial was forceful and equally credible. so what should the senate do? what should the senate do? senator alan dixon decided that what the senate though should do is confirm clarence thomas to the supreme court. thomas of course did get confirmed by a very narrow vote. it was only 52-48. that was generally along party lines, but not entirely. alan dixon, al the pal was one of the senate democrats who voted yes on clarence thomas. and then after casting that yes vote, he had to go home to illinois. now at this point in his career, alan dixon had won 29 consecutive elections. 29 in a row. starting with the first one he ever ran in at age 21. he had never lost an election. when he won his u.s. senate seat in the first place, he won it in a walk by nearly 15 points. when he got re-elect six years later, he won by 31 points.
in any statewide race. but he was al the pal. who could be against him? he was the consensus choice. no matter what he was running for, for decades from these little municipal posts all the way up through everything in state government, he was totally absolutely unbeatable. and in a sort of methodical way, as he was working his way up to higher and higher office, it ultimately became sort of inevitable that he would end up being a u.s. senator from illinois. in the united states senate, alan dixon was still al the pal, but he was not a really high profile senator. you know how there are all those little sidebar stories today about the timing of the brett kavanaugh vote this weekend might be upended because senator steve daines of montana has his daughter s wedding to go to? with every story there is a picture of steve daines, but literally that picture could be any guy on earth that could just be clip art because you have never seen steve daines before, and there is no way you would
being a u.s. senator from illinois. in the united states senate, alan dixon was still al the pal, but he was not a really high-profile senator. you know how there are all those little sidebar stories today about the timing of the brett kavanaugh vote this weekend might be upended because senator steve daines of montana has his daughter s wedding to go to? with every story there is a picture of steve daines, but literally that picture could be any guy on earth, that could just be clip art because you have never seen steve daines before, and there is no way you would know he was a senator without google. that was alan dixon. he was not a household name, not a recognizable figure. and part that of is because he wasn t controversial at all. he was go along to get along. he was a centrist. he was a moderate. he was sort of low profile. the other senator from illinois was paul simon, a liberal, wore
totenberg obtained the affidavit from anita hill in which hill laid out her allegations against thomas. that became public via nina totenberg s reporting. a big firestorm ensued. and those hearings were reopened and the consideration of thomas was delayed and the country honestly went nuts with the drama of all of it. here is a brief news clip from the time, from right when the thomas nomination was being stopped and reopened to consider these new allegations. just listen to the howl of anguish here from senator alan dixon, from al the pal, this back bench, low profile, go along to get along, everybody likes him senator. listen to his anguish when the time came for the senate to figure out what they were going to do with these allegations against that nominee. good evening. clarence thomas swears he s not guilty. his accuser is standing by her charge, and tonight the united states senate decided to delay a vote on his supreme court appointment to try to resolve what has become a supe
thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. very happy to have you with us. it is friday night. this is live, as always, that means anything could happen. friday nights do tend to be news nights these days. but even though that is in the back of my mind at all times on fridays now, i do want to start tonight with a little bit of a story. i realize today has been a big day. we ll start with a story. it is a story about a dude you may not know. his name is alan dixon. and alan dixon passed away a few years now. he is somebody who in his time everybody really liked. he had a nickname in politics. his nickname was al the pal, which was not tongue-in-cheek, not satirical. he was kind of everybody s pal. he was a go along to get along