Soon-to-retire Hollings not keeping quiet

WASHINGTON — Admired and resented for speaking his mind, soon-to-retire U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings took aim at two South Carolina institutions in recent newspaper interviews.

The Charleston Democrat derided the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, the Republican who retired in 2003 at age 100, for remaining in office too far past his prime.

And he scoffed at Greenville’s Bob Jones University — where interracial dating was forbidden until 2000 — calling its leaders “jackasses.”

Hollings, 82, made his comments in the course of separate and lengthy interviews with The State and The Washington Post, for stories on his retirement after 38 years of representing South Carolina in the Senate.

Known as one of the most candid politicians in the nation, he has let slip over the course of his career remarks — sometimes biting, sometimes irreverent — that ranged from offending minorities to jabbing at TV reporter Sam Donaldson for wearing a toupee.

To The State on Tuesday, he described Thurmond in his late years as unengaged — unaware of issues swirling around the Senate and saying only what his aides told him.

“Strom didn’t read a book. He read the little cards in front of him,” Hollings said, pretending to ploddingly read an imaginary note card. “But he didn’t listen to the answer. Then he’d read the next card. He was a dutiful reader, but he wasn’t a listener.”

To a Washington Post reporter last week, he mentioned Thurmond and the late U.S. Sen. John Sparkman, D-Ala. — who was younger than Hollings when he left office but ailing — and did an impression of a doddering old politician nodding off.

Washington Post writer Peter Carlson wrote in a story that ran Wednesday:

“‘I’ve seen ’em,’ Hollings says, his eyes now twinkling mischievously. ‘I’ve seen Sparkman falling asleep in his seat. I’ve seen others the same way. Poor Strom in his wheelchair. ... You lose your effectiveness. I’ve been elected seven times, and now it’s time to go home.’• ”

Hollings is a physically fit and energetic octogenarian who often plays tennis with friends and, on the Senate floor, spouts accurate trade statistics from memory.

Thurmond, the oldest and longest-serving senator of all time with 48 years of service, lived at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington for the last two years of his Senate term.

State Sen. John Courson, R-Richland, a Thurmond family friend, didn’t appear to take too seriously Hollings’ remarks on Thurmond, who died in June 2003 — six months after he left office.

As to whether Thurmond stayed in the U.S. Senate past the point at which he could serve effectively, Courson said: “One could ask the same of Senator Hollings. The voters decided to send them both back until they retired of their own volition.”

Both Hollings and Thurmond had a tremendous amount of political clout, Courson said.

“We will miss both of them.”

Also in Wednesday’s Post article, which focused on Hollings’ famously “tart tongue,” the senator refers to those who run Bob Jones University as “jackasses.”

To The State, as he was describing progress in South Carolina cities, he said: “Greenville has changed from a blue-nosed, drinking-on-the-card table-on-the-back-porch-in-the-middle-of-the-winter, to, by gosh, a cosmopolitan city. Except for Bob Jones. I mean, it’s really coming along.”

The school has a reputation for promoting regressive views on race. During the 2000 presidential race, the university attracted unwanted national attention when then candidate George Bush spoke at the school.

Stories about its prohibition on interracial dating and its founders’ reference to Catholicism as “a cult,” ran across the country.

Regarding Hollings’ recent comments, university spokesman Jonathan Pait said Thursday he was “speechless.”

“How do you respond to that?” Pait said. “I’m not surprised that Senator Hollings would say that. Bob Jones University is known to be a very conservative institution, and we would be at odds with many stands he has taken.

“We don’t agree with his statement, but it’s not surprising.”

Reach Markoe at (202) 383-6023 or lmarkoe@krwashington.com