by Todd Zywicki
Eugene asks about successful Professor-Politicians. Commenters add several he omitted, most notably Dick Armey. To the list we can also add former Mercer Law Prof Jim Marshall of Georgia and the late Paul Wellstone (oddly, if you type in a Google search for “Was Paul Wellstone ___,” Google suggests the word “murdered” instead of “a professor”).
For me it brings to mind the famous story about Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s challenge to incumbent James Buckely in the 1976 New York Senate race. Buckely at one point referred to Moynihan as ““Professor Moynihan from Harvard” to which Moynihan memorably replied, “the mudslinging has begun!”