Bonniecanuck
DIEF WILL BE THE CHIEF AGAIN
- Location
- Formerly Hong Kong, currently London
- Pronouns
- she/her + they/them
I've been spending the last week vacationing in Las Vegas and had a chance to visit the Mob Museum there, which includes the courtroom where the Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce held hearings with local mobsters. This committee exposed the depths of layers of organised crime to millions of Americans who tuned into the hearings through media, and propelled Estes Kefauver to national fame and prompted his presidential candidacies in 1952 and 1956.
What the exhibit didn't mention, but which can be learned with a little extra reading on the subject, was just how close the vote to establish the committee was. Debate over Senate Resolution 202 was highly partisan and it took Vice President Alben Barkley to cast a tie-breaking vote for it to be formed. Formally this was over whether the Senate's Judiciary or Commerce committee had responsibility for interstate organised crime, given many organised criminal enterprises were nationwide rackets that crossed state lines. The Kefauver Committee was the compromise solution as it would include Judiciary and Commerce Committee members, and still the vote came down to a Vice-Presidential tie break due to partisan politics and procedural disputes - though corrupt party machines and politicians with shady connections almost certainly had at least some sway too.
So assuming the vote goes the other way, what would be alternatives for the federal government to tackle the criminal underworld? I don't think it's something that can be so easily ignored given scandals and investigations involving organised crime being front-page news in much of the U.S. in 1949 and 1950, and Kefauver was if nothing else very passionate about the issue. But how else might a committee like it be organised against the failure of a compromise as outlined in S.R. 202? Would Kefauver even have a place on it?
What the exhibit didn't mention, but which can be learned with a little extra reading on the subject, was just how close the vote to establish the committee was. Debate over Senate Resolution 202 was highly partisan and it took Vice President Alben Barkley to cast a tie-breaking vote for it to be formed. Formally this was over whether the Senate's Judiciary or Commerce committee had responsibility for interstate organised crime, given many organised criminal enterprises were nationwide rackets that crossed state lines. The Kefauver Committee was the compromise solution as it would include Judiciary and Commerce Committee members, and still the vote came down to a Vice-Presidential tie break due to partisan politics and procedural disputes - though corrupt party machines and politicians with shady connections almost certainly had at least some sway too.
So assuming the vote goes the other way, what would be alternatives for the federal government to tackle the criminal underworld? I don't think it's something that can be so easily ignored given scandals and investigations involving organised crime being front-page news in much of the U.S. in 1949 and 1950, and Kefauver was if nothing else very passionate about the issue. But how else might a committee like it be organised against the failure of a compromise as outlined in S.R. 202? Would Kefauver even have a place on it?