DENVER Below is the transcript of Colorado Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeens (R-Monument) speech on the opening day of the First Regular Session of the 74th General Assembly. Together we face some persistent problems and it is likely that new challenges will arise. Senator Bob Rankin Announces his Resignation Dec 1, When ore is blasted by the heat of the crucible it is refined into something precious. In fact, politics has become extremely noisy. The senator would not say why. Because not only did she know for a fact that that allegation was true, that in fact an agent from Hitler's government really had been writing speeches for her Senator husband, she knew that it was true. Maddow: It was just a bad angle. To the majority caucus: We will make honest and sincere efforts to work with you. The speech How far did it go? Remember the thousands and thousands of Nazi propaganda books and leaflets and pamphlets that he disseminated all over Boston and the Northeast? The Colorado Senate is just three seats away from a conservative check on the out-of-control Democrat agenda. The term "senator" derives from Ancient Rome, where the Senate depicted the 'elders' assembly' ("senex" means Shortly before Sen. Ernest Lundeen's death, a newspaper called P.M. published a report that exposed Lundeen's scheme with a paid Nazi agent to distribute German propaganda throughout the United States. Senator Ernest Lundeen: I have never heard a German, or a German born American, with the gall to ask that we help Germany, but red, yellow, brown, black and white Kindred Was a Very Rich Man, UNIVERSITY of MINNESOTA BOARD of REGENTS Alphabetical by Last Name, Evolution of the Superior National Forest, A Sesquicentennial Journey 20052008 Letter from the Commissioners, The Washburn - Nelson Senatorial Campaign of 1894-1895, Otnngrt51linnal Jtcnrd. We must not use the resources and mechanisms of state government in a way that encumbers our grandchildren with a burden that cripples their future economy or saddles those precious souls with a debt they can never repay. The wreckage of the Pennsylvania Central Airlines plane, which crashed during a violent thunderstorm near Lovettsville on August 31, 1940. That was classic Viereck. Business card from Ernest Lundeen's campaign for Congress. Dies geschieht in Ihren Datenschutzeinstellungen. One of those photographs was taken at such an angle as to convey the impression that my husband was standing beneath the swastika. Senator Bob Rankin Announces his Resignation Dec 1, 2022 She later made a dramatic plea for justice for her late husbands memory, but was denied an Lundeens husband, who had been tragically killed in a plane crash near the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia two years earlier, was reportedly under investigation by the FBI at the time of his death. Hart: So what Viereck has done is he's realized that there's a way to game the American Congressional system against itself. He was something close to famous for his opposition to World War I. They expected to find evidence of that scheme that they knew about: notes, documents, records of payments, other evidence linking this Nazi agent to Senator Lundeen. Young: Republicans are just feeling very defeated as if theres nothing that they can do to stop Roosevelt. For it is in those commonsense and broadly acceptable solutions and the ability to crane our necks to see beyond today, even tomorrow, far beyond our time in this chamber that the optimism of the people of Colorado rests. Program for the funeral service of Sen. Ernest Lundeen on September 4, 1940, in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Majority Leader, colleagues, families, guests here in the Capitol, and to the People of Colorado : Welcome. Senator Lundeen gave this speech detailing the history of the Minnesota Farmer Labor Party on August 15, 1940 Lundeen served in the United States Army during the Spanish-American War. She threatened to sue one radio journalist who had reported a story about her late husband. How many members of Congress were in on this thing? Close Modal Suggest a Correction [1] He then served as a Republican from Minnesota in the United States House of Representatives, from March 4, 1917, to March 3, 1919, in the 65th congress. Young: Viereck would stand in Lundeen's office and use Lundeen's Senate phone to make phone calls to conduct their Nazi business in the United States, disseminating Nazi propaganda to unsuspecting Americans and it's not costing us, German Nazis, a single reichsmark. She did not want the photos of his kids off his desk. Lundeen was carrying these pages when he died, and they were found near the scene of the plane crash. Programming card from NBC News Radio cataloguing Sen. Ernest Lundeen's appearances in 1940. January 17, 2023 at 11:16 a.m. Below are the remarks as delivered by Gov. And yet we must not mislead ourselves into believing that the government can solve all problems. He needed to reach millions of Americans. But the speaker was in fact doing something unusual. Holman, who served on the Senate Military Affairs Committee with Lundeens late husband, had been narrowly defeated in a bid for a second term a few months earlier, losing a bitterly-contested Republican primary to the blunt-mannered and outspoken Wayne Morse. Young: Norma Lundeen directed, upon her husband's death, to have given to her all the Viereck files. Other countries have senators as well, either elected or appointed. This is the man, who after the grave had closed on him, and he could no longer defend his good name, has been ruthlessly slandered by repeatedly suggesting that Senator Lundeen was not a loyal American. Occupation. [3], Lundeen was elected to the United States Senate in 1936 as a member of the Farmer-Labor Party. It immediately led them to start wondering: Were they next? When wheat is fed into the thresher the chaff blows away. To make up for lost time, to get out from behind the eight ball, the Attorney General finally decided to appoint a special prosecutor, someone to start paying attention to these kinds of threats to our democracy. She complained to the radio stations who carried his reporting, trying to get him taken off the air; she threatened the sponsors who advertised on the broadcasts in which he appeared. Challenges faced by all. People are thinking my husband is on trial, she pleaded in an anguished voice. Thanks to that raid on that D.C. apartment, he now had names and literal receipts of the other members of Congress who had been involved. Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, R-Monument, said that businesses are already passing over Colorado for their expansion plans and conferences because they think its too much like California. I have been asked, can a team of twelve, the minority caucus in this august chamber make a difference? He had begun to identify those who had been involved in the scheme. Paul is a conservative fighter focused on protecting school choice, the 2nd amendment, and making Colorado more affordable. On their own, together, in teams, or as organisations. [3] Hart: This is a man who is a fairly known quantity. The speech written for Sen. Ernest Lundeen by a paid Nazi agent. An IPR Political Analysis: The Seventh Realignment, Breaking News: Connor Nepomuceno Resigns from LNC. No one wrote my husband's speeches. Maddow: In the year following the death of Senator Ernest Lundeen, newspaper and radio journalists began to figure out what exactly Lundeen had been up to with this German agent, George Viereck. Senate Stories Presented to enlighten, amuse, and inform, our new Senate history blog explores the forces, events, and personalities that have shaped the modern Senate. Leadership Position. Radio Reporter: George Sylvester Viereck, the man who has been prominent for several years as a Nazi propagandist. Young: Norma Lundeen is going all spouse-proud and, "My husband was not a Nazi," saying things like that to the press. May 18, 1941, 11:30 to 11:45pm, the NBC Blue Network. His father, C. H. Lundeen, was an early pioneer who was credited with the naming of Brooklyn Township as well as with helping to establish the school and other institutions located there. In part because everyone who choosesand most politicians chooseown a broadcast channel. The handwritten note at the top was added by his widow, Norma. Options for Contacting Senators. That's Viereck's portfolio from Germany. He wanted this propaganda effort to have a broader reach. It is almost unanimous, the people we represent, the whole people of Colorado, say they do NOT like polarized politics. ( sent) noun. And he was a high profile person. Its a Congressional privilege thats called franking, which still exists today. And we have a responsibility to represent our constituents, as well as the principles of individual freedom, the wisdom of crowds, or said another way, market forces, and a constrained government that animates creativity among the people, and of course we have a burden to hear and amplify the voices of people from every corner of Colorado. Private activist groups operating outside law enforcement were tracing stolen U.S. military weapons and complex, violent plots involving homegrown violent fascists with help and financing from Berlin. Committee Assignments. Maddow: George Syvester Viereck, as a highly-paid, highly-ranked agent of Hitlers government, he had his marching orders. But what prosecutor William Power Maloney actually found during that raid, it set him back on his heels. May God bless the work we undertake today with wisdom and a spirit of joy and understanding. Each state in the US elects two senators who serve six-year terms in Washington, DC, where they pass laws and vote on policies. Norma Lundeen: Innuendos have been made that a certain individual wrote my husbands speeches. That said, it's a longshot because, as Greg Brophy explained on today's show, the GOP would have to win 6 of the 7 currently contested seats. His very, very well-funded mission in the United States was two-fold: to try to keep the United States from getting into World War II, but also to soften us up, to mess with us, to make us just less effective as a country, by finding and exploiting what the Germans called "kernels of disturbance" in the United States. Legislature Home > Senate >. They asserted that Lundeens speeches were bitterly anti-British and vigorously against American preparedness. Whether certain foreign agents figured that they were about William Maloney was an experienced federal prosecutor. But the woman behind the mic that day, she was someone who was in a unique and interesting situation. Senator. Copyright 2022 Colorado Senate Republicans.All Rights Reserved. She asked them to give her the Viereck files and she took them away with her. But it's almost something from a James Bond film. The thick-lipped Viereck, who reportedly earned more than $100,000 singing the praises of Adolf Hitler while excoriating the British, was later indicted by a grand jury shortly after the devastating sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and was subsequently convicted on charges that he had deliberately concealed information when he registered as an agent of a foreign government. As a matter of fact, he was standing under the stars and stripes. He did manage to turn a sitting U.S. senator into a paid mouthpiece for a foreign fascist government. With the help of his pal, Senator Ernest Lundeen, George Sylvester Viereck had roped in dozens of sitting members of Congress to help him launder and disseminate Nazi propaganda using the resourcces of the United States congress. She said it was a big misunderstanding. Maddow: Millions of Americans. Jared Poliss office. We face some tough issues this session, those empty shelves I mentioned earlier, unaffordable goods and services, crime, a struggling education system, soaring energy costs. Lundeen was carrying these pages when he died, and they were found near the scene of the plane crash. Morse had vigorously denouncedHolman as a dangerous isolationist.. Pretty soon were talking right past each other and the cacophony can only be described as noise. From both parties. He was gonna need more Senators. He was kind of their top banana here. Young: The relationship that the two of them come up with is that Viereck will function as speech writer for Lundeen. And after about eight months of reading these reports about her deceased husband in the papers, hearing about them on the radio news, Norma Lundeen decided that shed had enough. A note pinned to the speech Sen. Ernest Lundeen was carrying the day he died, describing how the manuscript was found 100 yards from the scene of the crash. What we do: We create products for those who want to make their mark. The letter reads: "May I be a senator after Wash[ington] and Lincoln and under God (always for our America.)". He served in the Minnesota House of Representatives 191114. Hart: What Viereck does is he combines this incredible power of essentially unlimited copies of the congressional record printed at government expense, envelopes that are pre-franked, could be mailed a government expense. near Lovettsville, Virginia and all 25 persons on board were killed, including Senator Lundeen. To Senators Pelton (Byron and Rod), Baisley, Rich, Roberts, Exum, Cutter, Marchman, Mullica, and Sullivan, I extend a warm welcome to the state senate. It hadnt even been a year since her husband had died in that terrible, mysterious plane crash. Addresses for each senator can be found on the senator's website or state's web page. The work on these practical matters is pressing in on us even now. And Lundeen, from the archival record, seems to be making great use of what Viereck gives him. Again, this was less than 48 hours after the crash that killed her husband. With additional sound from CBS News. Hart: This was a closely guarded sort of set of correspondence that Norma Lundeen did not want out in the wider world. Hart: Many of these men begin sort of searching their own files, trying to find out what their legal exposure might be. Ernest Lundeen of the Minnesota Senate in the 76 congress. Viereck wrote Lundeen's speeches. That's when he had first gotten to know Viereck. States in the Senate Lists of all senators from each state and facts about each state's history in the U.S. Senate. But he remained isolationist and was later denounced by the party as a reactionary. The history books remember the senators widow as a tall, confident, well-spoken woman. Maddow: The America First Committee started up in 1940 as a pressure group, to try to stop the United States from getting involved in the Second World War. He served from January 3, 1937, in the 75th and 76th Congresses until his death. His employees would get paid a salary by the Senate, but he would then demand that they hand over a portion of that salary back to him. He served from January 3, 1937, in the 75th and 76th Congresses until his death. To reach that kind of scale, he needed more speeches. Holman, who never ran for public office again,died in 1959. I mentioned the Republican caucus in this chamber can, and I believe will, make a fundamental difference in the way this body takes on and talks about issues. In 1906 he was admitted to the bar. That's what they were expecting. He was. In the United States, senators are elected by voters to represent them in a state or federal senate. President, Mr. We face challenges too big to ignore and opportunities too important to fumble. (CROWD CHEERING AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN). Lundeen was born and raised on his father's homestead in Brooklyn Township of Lincoln County near Beresford in the Dakota Territory. 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