By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JUNE 25, 2019 | The United States Senate is a marvelous and imposing palace of government, run by what one person calls the “grandees ,” almost mostly men who have been in power for years.
We lost another gentle Southerner, a “grandee” himself, the other day, as Ernest “Fritz” Hollings of South Carolina passed away at age 97. A former governor who had the level-headed insistence that South Carolina integrate its colleges without incident, he went on to serve 38 years in the Senate.
Among his many accomplishments, Hollings was credited with the creation of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, toughening port security and, in his last term, setting up airport security after the 9/11 attacks. He also helped develop some of the nation’s most important environmental regulations.
In the early 1980s, he sponsored landmark legislation to cap runaway federal spending, the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act, but soon grew disgusted with those who found ways around such laws.
Senator Hollings remained an erudite, thoughtful person, not wanting credit for himself. In 2015, when in retirement, Hollings asked that his name be removed from Charleston’s federal courthouse in favor of J. Waties Waring, the judge who orchestrated the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling that desegregated public schools.
Looking at the Senate as a whole, Russell Baker, in a book, said Senator Robert Byrd (who served 51 years in the Senate) was a throwback to the days when “a senator was somebody,” when “the upper chamber’s grandees were men named Goldwater (18 years in the Senate); Humphrey (22); Symington (23); Dirksen (26); Fulbright (31); Kerr (14); Bridges (24); Long (38), Stennis (41); Thurmond (47);—some of them southerners and racist, but all of them feeling that they had a role at least equal to whoever occupied the White House.
With that in mind, let’s list here those “grandees,” with long service. Note that Georgia Sen. Richard Russell is among these “grandees.”
Longest terms in the Senate, as of January 14, 2019:
| 1. Robert C. Byrd (D-WV) | Jan 3, 1959 to Jun 28, 2010 | 51 years, 5 months, 26 days |
| 2. Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI) | Jan 3, 1963 to Dec 17, 2012 | 49 years, 11 months, 15 days |
| 3. Strom Thurmond (R-SC) | Dec 14, 1954 to Apr 4, 1956 and Nov 7, 1956 to Jan 3, 2003 |
47 years, 5 months, 8 days |
| 4. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) | Nov 7, 1962 to Aug 25, 2009 | 46 years, 9 months, 19 days |
| 5. Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) | Jan 3, 1975 to present | 44 years |
| 6. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) | Jan 3, 1977 to Jan 3, 2019 | 42 years |
| 7. Carl T. Hayden (D-AZ) | Mar 4, 1927 to Jan 3, 1969 | 41 years, 9 months, 30 days |
| 8. John Stennis (D-MS) | Nov 5, 1947 to Jan 3, 1989 | 41 years, 1 month, 29 days |
| 9. Ted Stevens (R-AK) | Dec 24, 1968 to Jan 3, 2009 | 40 years, 10 days |
| 10. Thad Cochran (R-MS) | Dec 27, 1978 to April 1, 2018 | 39 years, 3 months, 6 days |
| 11. Ernest F. Hollings (D-SC) | Nov 9, 1966 to Jan 3, 2005 | 38 years, 1 month, 25 days |
| 12. Charles E. Grassley (R-IA) | Jan 3, 1981 to present | 38 years, 11 days |
| 13. Richard B. Russell (D-GA) | Jan 12, 1933 to Jan 21, 1971 | 38 years, 10 days |
| 14. Russell Long (D-LA) | Dec 31, 1948 to Jan 3, 1987 | 38 years, 3 days |
| 15. Francis E. Warren (R-WY) | Nov 18, 1890 to Mar 3, 1893 and Mar 4, 1895 to Nov 24, 1929 |
37 years, 4 days |
| 16. James Eastland (D-MS) | Jun 30, 1941 to Sep 28, 1941 and Jan 3, 1943 to Dec 27, 1978 |
36 years, 2 months, 24 days |
| 17. Warren Magnuson (D-WA) | Dec 14, 1944 to Jan 3, 1981 | 36 years, 20 days |
| 18. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) | Jan 3, 1973 to Jan 15, 2009 | 36 years, 13 days |
| 19. Pete V. Domenici (R-NM) | Jan 3, 1973 to Jan 3, 2009 | 36 years |
| 19. Carl Levin (D-MI) | Jan 3, 1979 to Jan 3, 2015 | 36 years |
| 19. Richard Lugar (R-IN) | Jan 3, 1977 to Jan 3, 2013 | 36 years |
| 19. Claiborne Pell (D-RI) | Jan 3, 1961 to Jan 3, 1997 | 36 years |
| 23. Kenneth D. McKellar (D-TN) | Mar 4, 1917 to Jan 3, 1953 | 35 years, 10 months |
| 24. Milton R. Young (R-ND) | Mar 12, 1945 to Jan 3, 1981 | 35 years, 9 months, 22 days |
| 25. Ellison D. Smith (D-SC) | Mar 4, 1909 to Nov 17, 1944 | 35 years, 8 months, 13 days |
Source: U.S. Senate
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