WASHINGTON POST: …the great American electoral dynasty that abruptly announced its end Friday, or at least signaled what looks to be a long, long pause, always evoked more. That name on the ballot — Rockefeller — meant money. It meant epic-scale success. It meant everything.
And it meant that Jay Rockefeller wasn’t ever going to be just some Democratic senator from West Virginia. Rockefeller, who said Friday that he would not seek reelection in 2014 after nearly three decades in the Senate, was always going to be the oil titan John D. Rockefeller’s great-grandson, too. One of the heirs to a legendary fortune.
“He’s proud of being a Rockefeller. He talks about his uncles and his grandfather, about that legacy. It’s an important part of who he is and how he thinks about himself,” Rockefeller’s longtime political adviser, Geoff Garin, said in an interview. “He found a way to be a Rockefeller that was about serving people.”… (more)
EDITOR: The following devastating and perhaps unfair comment appeared under the article and caught our eye:
“He spent 30 years in the Senate and never sponsored a significant piece of legislation or chaired a major committee. His legacy is that he was the dullard of the Rockerfeller clan. Yet, with his money he was able to buy one election after another. Having no ability for independent thought, he followed the party line on every single issue regardless of how it impacted the fools who voted for him. A sparkling career for a great public servant, right?”
