Opinion
Having fun with Fudge – and other names
By: Jeff Dufour
Editor at Large/Columnist, "Yeas & Nays"
11/25/08 12:05 AM EST
What’s in a name?We couldn’t help but delight at the recent election of Ohio Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge — or at least her surname.
Fudge’s election to fill out the term of her late boss, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, sent us scurrying to track down some of the other unique names in congressional history.
Turns out that Fudge could put on quite a buffet along with Maryland Federalist Jeremiah Crabb, who served in the 1790s; Massachusetts Democrat Ezekiel Bacon, elected in the early 1800s; Sen. Claude Pepper, D-Fla., who served for decades in the 20th century; and Rep. James Pickle, D-Texas, who served from 1963-1994.
Cartoon fans would love Rep. Alfred Bulwinkle, D-S.C., who served in the 1920s, and the jokes write themselves for mid-20th century Rep. Dick Wigglesworth, R-Mass., and Sen. Joseph Bottum, R-S.D.
Other names are redundant (Edmond Edmondson, a Democrat who served in the House from Oklahoma from 1953-73) or evocative (West Virginia Democrat Harley Staggers and Louisiana Democrat Speedy Long, who served together last century).
Others could pass for Dickens characters, such as Rep. Shepard Crumpacker, R-Ind., Sen. Bourke Hickenlooper, R-Iowa, and Sen. Outerbridge Horsey, a Delaware Federalist who served in the early 1800s.
As far as current members are concerned, we think only one gives Fudge a run for her money in the name department: Maryland’s own Dutch Ruppersberger.
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