Forgotten political figures

[GeorgiaModerate]

Elliot Richardson, a dedicated public servant and moderate hero.  He served in FOUR Cabinet positions: Defense, Commerce, HEW, and Attorney General (during Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre) as well as Undersecretary of State and Ambassador to the UK.  He was sometimes mentioned as a possible Presidential or VP candidate in the 70's and early 80's, but nothing ever came of it.  I always thought he would have been a fine President.

[Orser67]

John Edwards. He completely disappeared from the political scene in his mid-50's, when a lot of politicians are just becoming prominent. And anything he ever did politically is totally forgotten; all that anyone remembers is that he cheated on his wife.

A lot of the early 2000s Congressional leaders are also good choices. You don't hear too much about DeLay (as was mentioned), Dennis Hastert, Bill Frist, Dick Gephardt, and Don Nickles.

[Mr. Morden]

A lot of the early 2000s Congressional leaders are also good choices. You don't hear too much about DeLay (as was mentioned), Dennis Hastert, Bill Frist, Dick Gephardt, and Don Nickles.

I thought it was funny when Jacobin started this thread about Gephardt, referring to him as "Democratic super-delegate" in the thread title:

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=267918.0

Like, why call him that?  We're political geeks, so we know who Dick Gephardt is.  (And if you're going to use a title, "super-delegate" seems an odd choice.)  Then I realized, maybe not everyone here does know who Gephardt is, since we might well have people here who weren't even born yet when he stepped down as House Minority Leader, or even when he made his 2004 run for president.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Theodore Bilbo
Elbridge Gerry

[Fuzzy Bear]

Sen. John Sparkman (D-AL), the only signer of the Southern Manifesto to be on the Democrat's National Ticket (Stevenson-Sparkman 1952).

Gov. Patrick Lucey (D-WI), John Anderson's 1980 VP Running Mate.

Harvey Gantt (D), first black mayor of Charlotte, NC, and 2X Democratic nominee for Senator against Jesse Helms.

Rep. Phil Burton (D-CA), Leader of the House Democratic Caucus who was responsible for leading the effort that undermined the old Seniority System and deposed three (3) key House Chairs.

Sen. Harris Wofford (D-PA), who was mentioned as a running-mate to Bill Clinton, then promptly lost to Rick Santorum in 1994.

Pat Choate was the economist who was Ross Perot's running mate in 1996.

Ezola Foster was a black female who was Pat Buchanan's running mate in 2000.

[MasterJedi]

Rick Santorum

[Tekken_Guy]

You don't hear too much about DeLay (as was mentioned), Dennis Hastert, Bill Frist, Dick Gephardt, and Don Nickles.

I don't think anyone's going to forget the child molester any time soon.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Rick Santorum

He's not forgotten, just quietly working behind the scenes

[Fuzzy Bear]

You don't hear too much about DeLay (as was mentioned), Dennis Hastert, Bill Frist, Dick Gephardt, and Don Nickles.

I don't think anyone's going to forget the child molester any time soon.

You'd think Hastert would get far more noteriety than he's gotten.  He's only slightly more obscure than Dan Crane, Gerry Studds, and Buz Lukens.

[Sumner 1868]

Rick Santorum

Actually, I think Santorum is not only still fairly remembered but is so polarizing he will probably be one of the few Senators of his era with a solid place in the history books of the future.

[Mr. Morden]

Rick Santorum

Actually, I think Santorum is not only still fairly remembered but is so polarizing he will probably be one of the few Senators of his era with a solid place in the history books of the future.

I wouldn't go that far, but I'd say that calling someone who ran for president as recently as 2016 "forgotten" seems like a reach.  What's next?  People are going to say that Jim Gilmore and George Pataki are "forgotten"?

[136or142]

I looked over my notebook of 2002 Governor races (what, like you all don't keep similar notebooks)

1.Fran Ulmer, former Democratic Lieutenant Governor of Alaska.  Lost to Republican Frank Murkowski.

2.Steve Windom, Alabama Lieutenant Governor lost badly to Bob Riley in the Republican Primary.  It seems he literally pissed away his career after it became public knowledge that he peed into a cup on the state senate floor during some lengthy filibuster.  To be honest, I'm not sure what else he could have done.

3.Scott McCallum. The 'Scott' who was the Republican Governor of Wisconsin (succeeded Tommy Thomson) before Scott Walker.

[PoliticalShelter]

How the hell has nobody mentioned Tim Pawlenty yet?

[Greedo punched first]

Lauch Faircloth, Gordon Smith, John Seymour, Nick Rahall, Sheila Frahm, Norm Coleman, Al Wynn, David Jolly, Charles Canady, and Dirk Kempthorne.

[136or142]

John Lynch or Jack Markell, both of whom would likely have made excellent Presidents.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Rep. Gary Condit (D-CA)

[136or142]

Rep. Gary Condit (D-CA)

Dennis Cardoza.

[Cory]

Jack Murtha.

Joe Lieberman.

Arlen Specter.

Tom Daschle.

Barbra Boxer.

George Pataki.

John Thune.

Charlie Crist.

Howard Dean.

Dennis Kucinich.

Just some old fogeys off the top of my head.

[Maxwell]

hey guys you remember anthony weiner god he had some speeches folks

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

I remember thinking after the 2004 loss that our only hope was a DLC centrist like Mark Warner.

Although if you had told me in 2004/2005 that just 3 years later that Virginia would be won by a black Democrat with the middle name Hussein, I would have laughed you out of the room.

[Reaganfan]

Bill Owens

[KingSweden]

Bill Paxon

[136or142]

hey guys you remember anthony weiner god he had some speeches folks

He also couldn't stop showing his...weiner.

[AtorBoltox]

Eric Cantor

[Vosem]

I wouldn't call people who are still in office (Scott Walker, Charlie Crist, John Thune, Joe Wilson) 'forgotten' exactly, even if some of them were once hyped rising stars and now kind of aren't. I don't think I'd say Santorum is forgotten either, though that's more because of his 2012 bid than his 2016 one.

Mostly this thread illustrates the rule that, unless you attain the greatest heights or deepest lows, pretty much all politicians are forgotten on the national level 15 years after whatever it was they did.