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Lloyd Bentsen, Former Vice Presidential Nominee, Dies at 85

Posted on: Wednesday, 24 May 2006, 06:00 CDT

WASHINGTON _ Lloyd Bentsen, who aspired to be president, represented Texas for 22 years in the Senate and became one of the nation's most-respected public servants, died Tuesday morning at his home in Houston. He was 85.

Bentsen, who distinguished himself in business and politics, capped a long career in government as President Clinton's first treasury secretary.

He once said he would like two or three lives. And, in many ways, he was able to take advantage of life's plentiful opportunities. He was a World War II hero, amassed a fortune in the insurance business, served in the House and Senate and went on to be a key adviser to a president.

Bentsen was the last of the Texas Democratic congressional giants in Washington, a club that included President Lyndon Johnson and House Speaker Sam Rayburn. The White House eluded Bentsen, but he rose to power in the Senate and many Democrats in Texas benefited from his statewide popularity and rode to office on his coat tails.

"No doubt he was a giant within the Democratic Party both in Texas and nationally," said his nephew, former Rep. Ken Bentsen. "He was a true leader for the state. He was the go-to person for the state when he was in the Senate."

Others offered praise Tuesday for Bentsen's life and accomplishments.

"I adored Lloyd Bentsen," said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. "He was such an extraordinary leader and public servant. He had a great presence that filled up any room that he walked into."

Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas also called Bentsen a giant: "Lloyd Bentsen's distinguished career earned him a reputation as a giant in Texas politics. He was a powerful voice for our state, and he will be deeply missed."

Analysts said Bentsen's greatest political contribution was delaying the eventual dominance of Texas politics by Republicans _ which is part of a multi-faceted legacy that includes significant contributions to the nation's economic well being.

"He extended the Democratic control of Texas politics for almost a quarter of a century," said Earl Black, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston.

An unsuccessful presidential aspirant in 1976, Bentsen was selected in 1988 as the Democratic vice presidential nominee, making his biggest national mark with a rejoinder in a televised debate with his Republican opponent, Sen. Dan Quayle of Indiana.

When Quayle defended his experience by likening himself to John F. Kennedy, Bentsen replied, "I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."

That public barb was unusual for Bentsen, who prided himself with seeking bipartisan support for economic initiatives when he headed the Senate Finance Committee. Indeed, Bentsen will be remembered for his contributions to economic policy, both in the Senate and as President Clinton's first treasury secretary.

Former aides and relatives said Bentsen focused Clinton and his youthful staff on the need to tackle the politically difficult budget deficit. Those efforts led to the 1993 deficit-reduction legislation that cut spending and raised taxes.

"He is due a good deal of the credit for the economic picture that we had during the 1990s," said Jack Martin, a former aide and campaign manager who founded the public affairs company Public Strategies Inc.

And as a senator, Bentsen won kudos for helping shape a variety of health, tax and trade initiatives, including health benefits for needy children, the creation of tax-deferred savings accounts, and congressional authorization for the White House to begin negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The senior Bentsen was set to finish out his career on Capitol Hill as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. But he gave up that powerful job to accept Clinton's appointment as treasury secretary.

He quickly became one of the president's closest advisers, playing the role of the wise old man in an administration initially noted for its youth and inexperience.

When Clinton ventured to Japan for the Economic Summit in 1993 and to Europe and Russia in early 1994, Bentsen was among the president's inner circle. He was at the president's side when they dined on caviar, suckling pig and moose lips with Russian President Boris Yeltsin at his snowy country dacha.

As Treasury secretary during the first two years of the eight-year Clinton administration, Bentsen played a key role in Clinton's early legislative successes by helping win congressional approval of a controversial 1993 budget package that included some tax increases and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Democrats later credited that budget measure for the economic boom of the 1990s, and President Clinton gave the credit to Bentsen.

"I don't want anybody to forget that this great economic recovery started on Lloyd Bentsen's watch and started before I ever took the oath of office," Clinton said in a speech in Houston in which he called Bentsen "one of the finest public servants I've ever known."

The early economic success, analysts say, came when the newly elected Clinton team made substantial deficit reduction a priority. And they did so at the urging of Bentsen, who then telegraphed their intentions to delighted investors on Wall Street.

"I knew that if I named him to be secretary of treasury, people would be serious," Clinton added. "They'd say, `This guy really is putting the economy first. This president really is going to turn the economy around.'"

After leaving government service in 1994, Bentsen joined the Washington law firm of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand.

But his health began to deteriorate in 1998, when he suffered two strokes. He appeared a year later in a wheelchair at the White House to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His illness eventually robbed him of a planned retirement playing his beloved game of tennis.

In May 2001, he was honored by dozens of former staff members and associates when he visited Washington to have dinner with other former treasury secretaries at the invitation of then-Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. His last public Washington appearance was in June 2004 when he attended the unveiling of Clinton's official portrait.

During his treasury tenure, Bentsen often appeared to mentor to the president, once lecturing him about getting enough sleep. Asked to characterize the relationship, Bentsen matter-of-factly said: "I give him my best judgment. I don't color it. He understands I have been in the political process for a while."

The administration's legislative successes brought Bentsen widespread respect at home and abroad. But his political career was not without rough spots, which he largely appeared to sidestep without significant blame.

In 1987, there was "Eggs McBentsen," a flap raised when, as chairman of the Finance Committee, he offered lobbyists a chance to have breakfast with him for a $10,000 campaign contribution. The plan leaked to the press, and Bentsen offered a terse but candid explanation: "I don't often make mistakes, but when I do, it's a real doozy."

During the early days of the Clinton administration, Bentsen managed to duck the Whitewater scandal even as it abruptly ended the public career of his deputy treasury secretary.

And shortly after leaving the treasury post in 1994, the world economy appeared threatened as the western economies were pressed to deal with Mexico's peso crisis. Bentsen's successor, Robert Rubin, was left to deal with the situation and explain it to Congress.

As a senator, Bentsen was credited with holding back Republicans and giving moderate and conservative Democrats a voice. As a pro-business politician, he also was able to raise money and assemble a coalition of white, Hispanic and black voters that assured his incumbency.

"He is the last example of a Texas Democrat whose fundamental ties were with business," Black said. "He helped hold conservative Democrats in the party and deterred Republicans from being able to compete."

Martin, the former aide, said Bentsen provided long coattails for Democrats. He said many in the Texas congressional delegation and the state legislature owed their seats to the senator.

"For three decades he was the central figure in keeping Texas a two-party state," Martin said. "And he did it with dignity and civility that did not create an atmosphere of open warfare between the two political parties."

Bentsen was a quiet man, and known for his intellect, discipline and self-confidence. He was also respected for his command of economic and health issues, political savvy and ability to work across the aisle with Republicans.

It was those qualities that led Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee, to pick Bentsen as his vice presidential running mate.

"He was a terrific running mate," Dukakis recalled. "He knew Washington, and he knew it well."

Political analysts said Dukakis became the textbook example of how votes can be lost by not responding to attack ads. Looking back, Dukakis agreed and said he should have learned from Bentsen's 1970 success in defeating George H.W. Bush for Congress.

"I made a huge mistake in blowing off the attack campaign," he said. "He might have straightened me out on that score. He had run against this guy and beaten him badly."

Bentsen was fond of telling about the early morning phone call in which Dukakis asked him to accept the vice presidential nomination. Reports that Dukakis had made a selection leaked the night before, but neither the Massachusetts governor nor reporters reached Bentsen until the next morning.

The senator had gone to bed and turned off his telephone.

"I called him about midnight, and the phone was off the hook, so I could not call any other people," Dukakis said. "I called him the next morning at 6:30. He was shaving. He said he was flattered but he would have to talk to B.A."

Bentsen told reporters his wife was still in bed when he delivered the news. "She shook her head and pulled the covers up over her head."

The Democratic ticket was soundly defeated by Vice President Bush and running mate Quayle. But Bentsen had run a second campaign to retain his Senate seat and easily won.

Despite the loss for the White House, Democratic pols credited Bentsen for running an impressive campaign. And he got especially high marks for his performance in the debate with Quayle in Omaha.

Later, Bentsen would joke that he should have copyrighted his stinging dismissal of Quayle and charged royalties for the often-repeated zinger.

During the 1992 primary season, as Clinton dealt with allegations of marital infidelity, some Bentsen supporters thought the party would turn to the Texas senator at a deadlocked party convention that summer. While Clinton went on to handily secure the nomination, Bentsen seemed at peace with his own accomplishments.

During his Senate career, Bentsen was fond of showing off the many pictures on his wall in his private hideaway office in the Capitol. The photographs show him hunting quail in England and posing with national leaders, including former presidents John Kennedy and Dwight Eisenhower.

"I tried to talk this fella into running for president as a Democrat," Bentsen said with a chuckle as he pointed to Eisenhower. "I won half the argument."

Lloyd Millard Bentsen Jr. was born Feb. 11, 1921, in Mission, Texas.

He was the son of Lloyd and Edna Ruth Bentsen, who moved during World War I to the Rio Grande Valley where they amassed a fortune in farming, cattle, real estate, banking and oil and gas.

Where the younger Bentsen was known as the suave and seemingly aloof patrician, his father was a rough rancher and a bit of a wild man. That streak almost foreclosed the possibility of there ever being a Lloyd Jr.

In 1915, the senior Bentsen, the son of Danish immigrants, was blasting down a dirt road at about 100 mph on a motorcycle when he hit and flew threw a horse-draw buggy "like a bullet." It took a year of bone grafts and recovery at the Mayo Clinic before he was walking on a cane.

He died in 1989 at age 95 after running a stop sign while driving from his home in Mission to his South Texas ranch. His wife, whom he called "Dolly," a native of Somerset, Texas, near San Antonio, died in 1977 at age 78.

Lloyd Bentsen Jr. was one of four children. At an early age, his lifelong traits of being quiet, reserved but self-confident were already evident.

"He's always strived to climb to the top, and done a pretty good job of doing it," the senior Bentsen said in a 1974 interview with The Dallas Morning News. His brother Don said then: "I used to kid him a little bit about being so mature when he was 10."

But that reserve did not make him reticent. When a grade school teacher asked who was the brightest student in the class, Bentsen offered himself by raising his hand.

He graduated from high school at 15 and went to the University of Texas, where he was president of his college fraternity. He graduated from law school at UT in 1942 and then enlisted in the Army, where he was selected for pilot training.

During the war, Bentsen became a squadron commander and flew more than 50 bombing missions over Europe. He was twice in B-24s when they crash landed after being damaged by flak, and he received the distinguished flying cross and the air medal with three oak leaf clusters.

During his pilot training, Bentsen met a Texas model in New York named Beryl Ann Longino, who went by the initials B.A. After a short courtship, they were married in 1943.

After the war, Bentsen dove into politics. Using the campaign slogan "Beat the Machine," which some Valley residents said was too brash, Bentsen was elected a county judge. Two years later, he ran against three opponents to become the youngest member of the U.S. House at age 27.

Bentsen showed an early interest in foreign affairs, but he stumbled on early efforts.

In 1950, he suggested the atom bomb be used against the North Koreans unless they called off their invasion of the south. As a senator 24 years later, Bentsen would vote against the bombing of Cambodia ordered by President Richard Nixon.

And he got swept up in the purge of alleged communists from U.S. government and society led by the late Sen. Joe McCarthy. In 1954, Bentsen proposed legislation that would cutoff federal benefits to unions dominated by communists.

"As long as they ever have legal aid, how can we remove Communism from industry," Bentsen said at the time.

A year later, Bentsen decided his $12,500 annual House salary was not enough to live on even though his father was wealthy. He resigned from the House to try his hand at private business.

By 1967, he had assembled a financial services conglomerate with holdings in insurance, a savings and loan association and banks.

But he never lost his interest in politics.

Bentsen was the state finance chairman for the Democratic ticket of John Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson in 1960. Texas conservatives wanted Bentsen to challenge incumbent Sen. Ralph Yarborough for the Democratic senatorial nomination in 1964, but he was apparently talked out of it by Johnson, who did not want to alienate liberals.

By 1970, Bentsen could no longer avoid the political itch.

His business ties proved helpful in raising funds. Bentsen won 53 percent of the primary vote after waging an intense advertising campaign in which he painted Yarborough as a liberal responsible or sympathetic to the anti-war demonstrations and riots waged against the Vietnam war.

Bentsen went on to win the general election by the same margin _ defeating Rep. George Bush of Houston.

His election was declared a victory for conservatives, prompting Vice Presidential Spiro Agnew to declare that Bentsen would vote with Senate Republicans.

That type of suggestion sparked an effort by Bentsen to recast himself as a moderate, a move coached by political mentor LBJ. As if to make his point, Bentsen helped lead an attack in 1975 on Nixon for retaining Henry Kissinger as both his national security adviser and secretary of state.

"I have long said it's a mistake for one man to wear both the silk top hat of the state department and the steel helmet of the national security council chief," said Bentsen, who proposed legislation to legally separate the two posts.

Bentsen walked a fine line throughout his Senate career, trying to fit in with the liberals who dominated his party without betraying his conservative Texas roots. And while he didn't succeed in winning the presidency, he wasn't obsessed with the idea of occupying the White House.

Years later when his retirement as treasury secretary was announced in the White House Rose Garden, the sun poked through the clouds, prompting him to quip: "The sun always shines on Bentsen."

It did seem that way. And he never let on publicly if he was personally distressed at not having been elected president.

"Sure, I want to be president," he once said. "But I'm not like those other fellas. I don't think I have to be president."

Bentsen is survived by his wife, Beryl Ann; sons, Lloyd III and Lan; a daughter , Tina Bentsen Smith; and seven grandchildren.

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(Staff writers Todd J. Gillman and Michelle Mittelstadt contributed to this report.)

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(c) 2006, The Dallas Morning News.

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Source: The Dallas Morning News

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