Siegelman Meets Big Jim
OPINION —
We are continuing this week with our summer series on Big Jim Folsom — Alabama’s most colorful governor.
Those of us who grew up in and around Alabama politics have coined a descriptive term for a person who is obsessed with seeking political office constantly and tirelessly without reservation or concern for their physical, mental or financial welfare. They will run for high-elected office at all costs. The term we use to describe those people is named for the man who best exemplified that obsession, George Wallace. Therefore, someone who is driven by an obsession to win high public office has the “George Wallace Syndrome.”
The Alabama baby boomer who was eaten up with the George Wallace Syndrome more than any other I know was Don Siegelman. Siegelman ran nonstop beginning from the time he was a student at the University of Alabama in the 1960s. He was successful. He was president of the student government at Alabama and went on to become Alabama’s secretary of state, attorney general, lieutenant governor and finally his life’s dream of governor.
There is an old political saying that you don’t ever want to get into a race with someone who wants it more than you and will outwork you. Siegelman was never outworked. He was relentless and focused on the ultimate prize that many a young politician in Alabama aspired to and that’s the governor’s chair. He captured the brass ring.
Siegelman reminded me so much of Wallace, he truly deserves the award for having the Wallace Syndrome. He and Wallace were so consumed with politics and being governor that neither one of them could tell you what they were eating when you had lunch with them. Eating was a sideline to any political discussion they were having and calling lunch. They ate because they had to eat to survive.
Siegelman was always a little more liberal than most Alabamians. Therefore, he grew up admiring the more progressive Alabama political icons. He admired our progressive New Deal Democrats, such as Lister Hill, John Sparkman and Carl Elliott. However, the utmost idol for young liberal politicians of my era was James E. “Big Jim” Folsom. Folsom was truly a progressive on fiscal and social issues.
Siegelman had a markedly similar career and educational background as Bill Clinton. Both were almost the same age, both received undergraduate degrees from their state universities, both left college and went to prestigious law schools — Clinton to Yale and Siegelman to Georgetown. They both went on to do postgraduate work at Oxford in England. Then they both started running for office right away. Clinton ran for Congress, then governor of Arkansas. Siegelman ran for secretary of state and then on up the Alabama political ladder to attorney general, lieutenant governor and governor.
As Siegelman was beginning his first foray into Alabama politics, I will share with you a funny story that I call the “Don Siegelman meets Big Jim story.”
Siegelman was campaigning hard all day for secretary of state in early 1978 and wound up his day late in Cullman. Folsom, in his later years, camped out at a truck stop along the interstate in Cullman. Folsom was drinking coffee and Siegelman spotted his lifelong hero and liberal idol and went over to introduce himself. Siegelman gave Folsom his spiel and what he was doing and how his campaign for secretary of state was going. He gave Folsom the story of his pedigree concerning all of his educational degrees: University of Alabama Student Government president, Georgetown Law School and Oxford in England.
Folsom listened intently to the young politician and sipped on his coffee. Now, you have to realize that even though Folsom was a progressive on fiscal and race matters, he was pretty down home when it came to country politics, patronage and home-spun talking to folks. Folsom was also pretty pragmatic and plain-spoken. He said, “Boy are you asking my advice about your campaign?” Siegelman said, “Sure I am, governor.” Folsom said, “Well, first of all, you need to change your name, ain’t nobody in Opp going to vote for some boy named Siegelman. First of all, you can’t say it, secondly, it don’t sound like a good regular Alabama Baptist or Methodist name, and you better tell folks you went to school at Oxford High School in Calhoun County and not someplace in England. Thirdly, don’t you know you can’t steal any money in that job?”
See you next week.
Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Flowers may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.