Nation: The Man Who Quit Kicking the Wall

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The Trainer. Still, Hubert remained unabashed. He kept on talking, and criticizing, and introducing liberal bill after liberal bill. He suffered rebuke after rebuke, defeat after defeat. Finally, in despair, Humphrey took stock of himself. He had come to Washington to get things done. But his brashness, his refusal to kowtow to his Senate elders, were obviously rendering him ineffective. And late one night, in a moment of truth, Hubert Humphrey confided to a friend: "I'm going to stop kicking my foot against the wall."

Among the few who had already recognized that there were real gifts behind Hubert's gab was Texas' Lyndon Johnson, who had been sworn into the Senate on the same day as Humphrey. "I wish I could be that boy's trainer," Johnson once remarked of Humphrey. Now, realizing that Humphrey was ready to accept some training, Johnson sought out the Minnesotan. "Hubert," he said, "I want you to meet the people around here who count." Humphrey took to talking with Georgia's wise old Senator Walter George, who had been among the first to scorn Hubert as an upstart. Senate veterans still remember how Humphrey worked to win George's respect, constantly asking questions and seeking advice from the old man. Before too long, George was telling his colleagues that young Humphrey wasn't a bad fellow at all.

Thus began the metamorphosis of Hubert Humphrey. He was, and he remains, a torrential talker. In 1958 his 81-hour interview in Moscow with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev left interpreters reeling. His formal speeches have been clocked at a breathless 250 words a minute, and he will rapidly discourse until dawn on any subject, to any audience, on any occasion. Even last week, when Johnson finally told Humphrey that he would be the vice-presidential nominee, the President still felt compelled to warn Humphrey against talking too much.

Yet, with skill and determination Humphrey rose rapidly in the Senate. He assumed positions of power in the Foreign Relations, Government Operations and Appropriations Committees. In his first two terms he sponsored a phenomenal total of 1,044 bills and joint resolutions. And though the final bills did not bear his name, Humphrey proposals have led to such major legislative accomplishments as the Peace Corps, the National Defense Education Act and the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. Last year Humphrey was deservedly among U.S. representatives at the signing of the limited nuclear test ban treaty in Moscow.

Winning the Winnable. Humphrey's fire-eating stance as a doctrinaire liberal has long since shifted to that of the pragmatist who is satisfied to win what is winnable rather than go down to defeat demanding all or nothing. "I am not a theologian," he has said. "I'm a politician." Where he was once vocally suspicious of any business much larger than the corner drugstore or the family feed mill, he now takes pains to assure big businessmen of his modified views. "For the most part," wrote Humphrey in his recently published book, The Cause Is Mankind, "big corporations are a source of strength and economic vitality. And certainly, big business is here to stay."