Jimmy Quillen, R.I.P.

The grand old man of Tennessee Republicans-and easily, one of the best-liked of that group-died on November 1. Former Rep. (1962-96) Jimmy Quillen, whose 34-year-stint made him the longest-serving member of Congress in Tennessee history, was soft-spoken and always pleasant, but nonetheless compiled a solid conservative record (lifetime American Conservative Union rating: 86%) as the senior Republican on the House Rules Committee for many years.

One of ten children of a sharecropper, Quillen left school in Kingsport, Tenn., as a teenager to earn extra money for his family. In a story that became legend in his hometown, the young Quillen was fired as an advertising salesman for a local newspaper. Rather than sulk or complain, Quillen launched his own publication, the Kingsport Mirror, and later founded another newspaper, the Johnson City Times. Both publications prospered in the late 1930s and the same publisher who had fired Quillen was, after falling on hard times himself, hired by his discharged employee.

Quillen left the newspaper business to join the U.S. Navy during World War II. Upon his discharge, he started real estate and insurance businesses. In 1954, he was elected as one of a handful of Republicans to the state house of representatives and quickly became minority leader. After Republican Rep. (1920-30, 1932-46, 1950-61) B. Carroll Reece, a close Quillen friend, died in 1961, wife Louise Goff won a special election to succeed him. She strongly endorsed Quillen for the full term the following year. He won handily and never faced a major re-election challenge for the rest of his career.

Although he had little in common with the outspoken younger conservatives who led the Republican takeover of the House in 1994, Quillen nonetheless helped guide key conservative measures-notably the bill to make desecration of Old Glory a federal crime-through the Rules Committee. Quillen also took the lead in opposing federal dollars for the homeless ("I don't want Congress to create more homelessness on the street . . . Instead of solving the problem, we would make it entirely more complicated"). Media criticism notwithstanding, he was vigorous in leading the charge in the 1980s to permit members of Congress to earn greater outside income. When Common Cause head Fred Wertheimer testified before the Rules Committee in 1981 against a proposal repealing the outside income ceiling of 15% of salary, Quillen peppered him with hard questions about his own salary and expenses. Eventually, the House voted to raise the ceiling to 30%, but in 1995, voted to ban outside income for lawmakers.

Quillen, who retired in 1996, was 87.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Nov 24, 2003
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