MISSOURI WATCH: MISSOURI'S EXCEPTIONAL SENATOR: DANFORTH DID NOT LET THE STATE DOWN

The pity is that many Missourians may nevery fully appreciate their fellow citizen who has served in the U.S. Senate for the past 18 years. This is regrettable for several reasons. In this cynical age the idea of self-serving politicians has become so firmly implanted in the public's mind that any exception to the rule becomes unreal and distorted. The concept of public service has been given such a bad name that anyone attempting to pursue it immediately becomes suspect.

The public needs to recognize there are exceptions to the rule, and while they may be a small minority, there emerges on occasion a sterling example worth embracing and worthy of emulating. John C. Danforth is one of those examples.

Twenty-six years ago Jack Danforth began a journey that took him to Jefferson City, where he spent eight years, and then proceeded to the nation's capital, where he served three terms in the upper chamber of Congress. The start of his political career was precipitous, to say the obvious, and when he filed for the office of attorney general of Missouri, the odds were better than two-to-one that he would never finish the trip. Democrats virtually owned Jefferson City, lock, stock and barrel. Republicans were not welcome in the Capitol after sunset. Signs outside statewide offices read, "No Republicans need apply." John C. Danforth applied nevertheless.

Although most Democrats refuse to admit it to this day, Danforth was elected attorney general because the party of Truman had done such a poor job of selecting the incumbent. In describing this Democratic hapless hack, the word mediocrity comes to mind. Without realizing it, Democrats had provided this Republican minister and priest with a perfect entry-level job opportunity. If Democrats were hardly wild about Danforth, enthusiasm from a vast majority of Republican leaders was only slightly less tepid.

Only the average Missouri voter seemed to have recognized the potential of a relatively young man who inherited enough money from his family to live out his days in the comfort of a partnership in a silk-stocking law firm and the plush surroundings of the exclusive St. Louis Country Club. To this day, Jack Danforth is anathema to leaders in both parties, and it is fair to say in passing that the excuses of both groups for their opposition have remained as stultified as they were nearly three decades ago.

Danforth not only served the state well as attorney general, he began forming a political party that recognized there were better ways of creating energy than through the steam engine. He resurrected a political faith that had become so comfortable with losing elections that it could no longer recognize a winner when one appeared. Despite his exceptional service as attorney general, Danforth had trouble getting to Washington, but he made it, eventually, and voters vindicated themselves by repeating their wisdom in 1982 and 1988.

And Jack Danforth did not let Missouri down.

Once installed on Capitol Hill, the freshman senator made a very serious decision, deciding that he would represent more than the views of his own party. He decided, almost singularly, that he would represent every group, every opinion and every belief to the best of his ability. He supported some of the most controversial issues that could becloud a public servant, and the old guard of the grand old party never forgave him for this. They still speak, with venom, of his "betrayal" on such issues as the Panama Canal treaty, the Family and Medical Leave measure, the Clinton crime bill.

Danforth has even had the audacity to oppose the right-wing commandment of 1994 -- Hancock II -- suggesting that its authors' intentions are politically motivated and short sighted. As one GOP leader said angrily after the senator's statement of opposition, "No wonder we never liked that s.o.b."

Jack Danforth has never expected to be loved by his enemies, and is sufficiently mature to know that even his friends will, on occasion, disagree. Serving neither side, he has voted his conscience, which thoughtful Missourians will view as both wise and appropriate. As one who has supported him because he was always the best of the lot, my only regret is that our state was not permitted to install a second Missourian in the office of the presidency. He would have been another Truman.

~Jack Stapleton is a Kennett columnist.