Defending Herbert Hoover

Senator David Johnson, a Republican from Ocheyedan, is a West Branch native.  West Branch was the hometown of Herbert Hoover, the only Iowan to be elected POTUS (President of the United States).  Johnson gave a brief speech on the senate floor this afternoon, defending Hoover’s legacy.

“Few presidents have known more relentless criticism than Herbert Hoover.  More than 75 years after his presidency, he remains to some extent a political outcast.  I think this is just wrong.  Herbert Hoover was a global humanitarian who saved more than a billion lives in the 20th century.  I ask my colleagues to ponder that statitistic — mostly civilians who were the victims of war and famine.  Surely, there’s a special place in the history and in our hearts for such a person.”

Johnson asked the senate to observe a moment of silence in honor of two of Hoover’s relatives who died in the past year.  On September 29, 2009 the president’s daughter-in-law died and on February 4, 2010 Herbert “Pete” Hoover III died.  “He was an uncommon man,” Johnson said of Pete Hoover. Johnson also asked for a moment of silence for John Ruan, a Des Moines businessman and philanthropist who died this past weekend.