A campaign button mystery for Ticket readers: Who is this guy?
O.K., Ticket readers. Here's a little challenge for you to help us survive until the next primaries.
Who is this candidate? He's on a mystery political button found in an old bag by a Ticket reader who's not so old.
Looks familiar to some of us. But we can't recall the name. Honest.
Can you? Leave your answers in the Comments section below.
And while you're at it, send us in a jpg of your favorite old campaign button. We'll publish them on The Ticket, which also collects them.
--Andrew Malcolm
Photo Credit: Diana Swartz
Don Frederick has served as an editor helping guide coverage of every presidential election since 1984. He is a third-generation Washingtonian, so watching the political world comes naturally to him.
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000.
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Wild guess. Is it Patrick Buchanan, 'way back?
Posted by: Tominellay | May 21, 2008 at 09:57 AM
This looks like former U.S. Sen. Ronald W. Riegle, Jr. of Michigan.
(Thanks, we'll check that out.)
Posted by: Robert L. King | May 21, 2008 at 10:11 AM
Gary Hart?
Posted by: Debbie Meister | May 21, 2008 at 10:36 AM
Looks like an old photo of Merv Griffin to me.
(That's what Joe Mathieu on XM Satellite Radio POTUS 08 guessed too. It does resemble him. Thinking the Riegle guess is a good one too.)
Posted by: Bob | May 21, 2008 at 10:41 AM
Tom Eagleton: "Eagleton, Thomas Francis, 1929–2007, U.S. senator (1968–87), b. St. Louis, Mo. Admitted to the bar in 1953, he entered Democratic politics in Missouri and served as circuit attorney for St. Louis (1957–60), state attorney general (1961–65), and lieutenant governor (1965–68). He was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1968, and was subsequently appointed to the body in Dec., 1968, prior to the start of his first term..."
Posted by: 08vote | May 21, 2008 at 10:42 AM
I KNOW that guy, it's... uh, ole.... er... tip of my tongue... damn... it's...
Posted by: carter | May 21, 2008 at 10:59 AM
I agree with the prior comment that it's former Sen. Riegle of Michigan (but his first name is Don, not Ron).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_W._Riegle%2C_Jr.
Posted by: Gromit | May 21, 2008 at 11:33 AM
Gravel?
Posted by: MB | May 21, 2008 at 11:56 AM
Maybe it's the nameless, mysterious leader behind Hillary's "vast right-wing conspiracy"?
-Wm Tate
http://www.atimelikesthis.us/
Posted by: Wm Tate | May 21, 2008 at 12:03 PM
If the earmuffs are to hide the enormous span of his ears
then I would say this is prince Charles addressing an
inscrutable smile to that horse of a woman he Spitzered
with for so many years.
Posted by: What's his face ? | May 21, 2008 at 12:25 PM
Sonny Bono?
Posted by: Count Every Vote | May 21, 2008 at 12:44 PM
Gilligan from Gilligan's Island?
Posted by: Kap | May 21, 2008 at 04:06 PM
Don Riegel, in his younger days. Long before he became 20 percent of the Keating Five.
Check it out:
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/04/14/business/14bailout650.1.jpg
Posted by: Brooks Jackson | May 21, 2008 at 04:08 PM
Looks like Mike Roos
Posted by: ron | May 21, 2008 at 04:36 PM
Here's a link to Riegle's entry in the Biographical Directory of the US Congress, with an older picture. That moppy hair combs the same way and sort of covers the ears the same way, too.
Geez - these politicians really need help with their hair.
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=R000249
Posted by: Nathan | May 21, 2008 at 04:52 PM