More on the 88th Senate

Schaller says:

Heck, two of the three Senate office buildings on Capitol Hill—Dirksen and Russell—are named for senators who were part of that 88th Congress.

Not quite -- actually, all three Senate office buildings are named for Members of the 88th Senate. The Hart Building is named after Phil Hart, a much-loved Senator from Michigan.

Schaller caught two fathers, Gore and Dodd, but he missed Milward Simpson (R-WY), father of Alan Simpson (R-WY). What's more, Absalom Willis Robertson was the father of Pat Robertson, who didn't serve in the Senate but did run for president.

I'll give the 88th one thing: they had way better first names back then. Absolom and Milward were joined by Spessard, Birch, Bourke, Claiborne, Strom, Olin, Thruston, Estes, Leverett, Jennings, and Gaylord. Now? I count seventeen Senators Joe, Jeff, or some form of Jo(h)n. Eighteen with a Jay.

This concludes the Stuff I Know (or notice when I'm looking up other things) About Old Senates portion of this blog.