K. D. McKellar FOR U.S. SENATOR - Tennessee 1916

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K. D. McKellar FOR U.S. SENATOR - Tennessee 1916:
$76.00

While going through some stuff I came across some fairly unusual local pinbacks. The first offered here is a 7/8\",

K. D. McKellar FOR U.S. SENATOR

He ran for Senator in Tennessee the first time in 1916.
With the young image here,
I would assume it is from that campaign as Senators only run every 6 years.

In the Senate he was ranking member of the Appropriations Committee and held great power.

When FDR died, and Harry Truman became President of the United States, Truman could not appoint a Vice President (the mechanism had not yet been created by the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution), and McKellar became an unofficial Vice President, while also serving as President of the United States Senate. As the Presidential line of succession had been to the Vice President and then the President pro tempore of the Senate in the past, Truman honored that tradition by seeing McKellar as the logical wartime replacement for himself, and asked McKellar to attend all Cabinet meetings.

There is a very interesting story about

McKellar and J.Edgar Hoover
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\"The Democrats came back to power in 1933 with the inauguration of Franklin Roosevelt after twelve long years of Republican rule. McKellar’s office was inundated with requests from thousands of Tennesseans looking for work. Senator McKellar kept an eye out for his constituents with every Federal agency and McKellar contacted Hoover about the desire of a few Tennesseans who wished to become special agents for the FBI. The imperious Director ignored McKellar, causing the senator to go over his head and contact Hoover’s nominal boss, the Attorney General. When Hoover found out about McKellar complaining to the Attorney General, he retaliated by firing three FBI special agents in Tennessee not a week later.

Considering that Kenneth McKellar was the ranking member of the Senate’s powerful Appropriations Committee, Hoover’s act of vengeance was both arrogant and foolish. McKellar was also the Chairman of the Appropriation Committee’s Justice subcommittee, which oversaw Hoover’s own budget. McKellar had been in the Senate since 1917 and was one of the more senior Democrats in that body. Profoundly angered by Hoover’s insult, McKellar waited for the FBI Director to come to Congress, as he must, for funds.

The confrontation between Senator McKellar and J. Edgar Hoover has been well documented and has even been recognized in modern film. The Tennessean managed to mortally embarrass the ultra-sensitive Hoover so badly it chaffed the FBI Director for decades to come. Both Dillinger with Johnny Depp and the remarkable J. Edgar, a film by Clint Eastwood, have scenes with Senator McKellar clashing with Hoover. Oddly, both actors chosen to portray Senator McKellar have moustaches, an affectation McKellar never wore on his lip.\"

Excellent condition, with original back paper from THE BELL COMPANY, NASHVILLE.