Nation: The Leader: Everett Dirkson

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"I guess not," said Dirksen. "I found the answer before I came here."

"Whom did you see?" the doctor asked.

Replied Ev: "I called on the Big Doctor. The Big Doctor Upstairs—and the answer is no."

Dirksen kept his eye, but he needed careful treatment and plenty of rest, requiring him to retire from the House. On the eve of his departure, his colleagues—Republicans and Democrats alike—bade him the fondest sort of farewell. Declared Sam Rayburn, then the Democratic floor leader: "If they are going to send Republicans to Congress, let them send Republicans of the Everett Dirksen kind."

Little did Rayburn realize how that wish would be fulfilled. Two years later, in 1950, Dirksen, rested and mostly recovered (today his left eye tests 20/20, the right eye 20/40), got himself elected to the Senate by beating Majority Leader Scott Lucas; during his campaign he widely quoted all the nice things Rayburn and other Democrats had said about him.

In his early Senate years, Dirksen was a down-the-line conservative. Where once he had given his best support to the Marshall Plan, he now attacked it as "Operation Rathole." He fought the Truman program, championed Bob Taft against Dwight Eisenhower for the presidential nomination in 1952. In a chilling, unforgettable speech at the Chicago convention, he urged that a pro-Taft delegation from Georgia be seated. Before millions of televiewers, he turned to the New York delegation, led by Ikeman Tom Dewey, and cried: "When my friend Tom Dewey was the candidate in 1944 and 1948, I tried to be one of his best campaigners, and you ask him whether or not I didn't go into 18 states one year and 23 states the next. Re-examine your hearts before you take this action [voting against the Taft delegation], because" — and here Dirksen dramatically crooked a finger straight at Dewey's frozen face — "we followed you before and you took us down the path to defeat!" The hall exploded in cheers and boos.

And when the tremendous uproar died away, Dirksen turned his bland face once more to the hall and said with majestic aplomb: "I assure you that I didn't mean to create a controversy."

Hail to the Chief. Eisenhower's victory did not instantly convert Dirksen. Time and again he voted to slash Ike's appropriations requests for foreign aid. During the time that Joe McCarthy was riding high, Dirksen was one of his strongest defenders. Finally, when the Senate approached a vote on McCarthy's censure, Dirksen fought desperately against the move, flooded the Senate chamber with images of Christmas charity and brotherly love.

But Dirksen is a creature of change, and proud of it. "Change," he says, "is an inherent way of life." So, during Ike's second term, he became a loyal Eisenhower follower. It was with Ike's blessing that Dirksen was elected Republican Senate leader in 1959. Dirksen called Eisenhower "the Chief" and took pride in the fact that he "carried the flag" for the President. When there was a fight impending in the Senate, Dirksen shouldered his burden with the cry "Chief, give me that hot poker!" Ike loved it.