The incident of June 11, 2002 is widely known to those who have studied Barack Obama. It has been discussed by National Review Online’s own Jim Geraghty of “The Campaign Spot” as the only public occasion in Obama’s adult life in which he nearly got into a physical fight.
In the course of researching the story of Obama’s political career, I obtained what I am told is a rare audio record of what happened on the Senate floor that day, just before Obama nearly came to blows. It does not provide any earth-shattering indictment of Obama, but it does offer a new look at an historic event in his career.
The proceedings of the Illinois senate are not broadcast on C-SPAN. The senate’s records are actually kept very poorly — especially records of committee hearings, but also recorded floor votes from earlier sessions. Although audio recordings of the chamber’s proceedings are created, they are typically destroyed once the transcripts have been typed up. This clip, whose full length is about 16 minutes, is a survivor of that process.
The debate on June 11, 2002, was over several line-item vetoes that had been made to the budget by Gov. George Ryan. Sen. Steve Rauschenberger (R.), the budget floor manager, argues for senators to sustain the budget cuts. Enter Sen. Rickey Hendon (D.), a flamboyant black legislator known by the nickname “Hollywood” and for his colorful wardrobe. Hendon engages Rauschenberger in a brief colloquy and then delivers a passionate and angry speech asking senators to override the governor’s cutoff of funds to a branch of the state Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) in his West Side district.
“This is in my district — in my community, so we know how this is going to go down,” he says. “Why can’t we close some of these corporate loopholes for the rich and powerful, instead of closing places that are needed, like this little DCFS office in my district? … Instead of closing facilities that are needed, that can keep children — children that we all claim to love in this Senate — from being out there on the street, living with people who don’t love them and don’t care, and just generally suffering through life in Illinois?”
He also faults the chamber’s Republicans for the lack of bipartisanship that supposedly brought about this cut. “Bipartisan cooperation is more than rhetoric, my friend … You have to work with this side of the aisle … ”
Senators are given just a few seconds to vote, as is customary, ending with the chair’s question, repeated three times: “Have all voted who wish?” Hendon’s side loses, 21-36.
Obama steps up to the mic immediately afterward to introduce a group of schoolchildren from his district who are present in the gallery. Those students were about to get a rather exciting show by state legislative standards.
After Rauschenberger introduces the next measure, Obama delivers a slightly rambling and less-than-eloquent speech, full of “uhs” and “ahs,” which is nonetheless a perfectly respectable oration. He speaks in favor of some budget cuts and against others, and even makes an amusing reference to his grandmother’s athletic ability — “She could whip all of you,” he says. Among other things, he questions the wisdom of spending state money to encourage students to train for work in the technology sector, given the recent dot-com bust. He states that Republicans do not have the monopoly on “responsible” budgeting.
No sooner has Obama finished speaking than an irate Hendon has already returned to the microphone, demanding to be recognized. He positively shouts:
I just want to say to the last speaker — you’ve got a lot of nerve to talk about being responsible, and yet you vote to close the DCFS office on the West Side when you wouldn’t have voted to close the one on the South Side. So I apologize to my Republican friends for my bipartisanship comments, because there are clearly some Democrats on this side of the aisle that don’t care about the West Side either, especially the last speaker.”
At first, the entire chamber is silent. The chair asks Obama whether he would like to respond, and shouts suddenly become audible in the background. He finally addresses the chamber, calmly:
I understand Senator Hendon’s anger. Actually, it turns — the, uh — I was not aware that I had voted ‘No’ on that last piece of legislation. I would have the Record record that I intended to vote ‘Yes.’ On the other hand I would appreciate the next time, my dear colleague Senator Hendon, ask me about a vote before he names me on the floor.
Obama ends that sentence with a descending tone of voice. He sounds slightly upset. According to other accounts of this exchange, Obama placed his hand on Hendon’s shoulder and Hendon slapped it away.
The two men then took their grievances off the Senate floor. According to Chicago Tribune reporter David Mendell’s book, Obama: From Promise to Power, Obama had to be physically restrained in the heated confrontation that followed in an adjoining room. Mendell would later say that Obama was “ready to throw some punches.”
Mendell records that Hendon never accepted Obama’s explanation that the vote had been a mistake. He writes:
Individuals close to the situation say Hendon still believes that Obama voted against his project in order to pacify North Side fiscal conservatives who were leery of some West Side projects.
Whatever the merits of this or of Obama’s explanation, the audio demonstrates that Obama was at the microphone seconds after the disputed vote. This casts reasonable doubt upon the explanation offered by Obama’s supporters, that he had been away from the floor and that a proxy had voted mistakenly on his behalf. A number of Illinois senators have told me that mistaken votes are quite common, in part because senators have only seconds to cast their votes.
Since the beginning of Obama’s presidential run, Hendon has stopped talking to the media about the incident. As he told Mendell, “I have been advised to leave Barack alone and that is what I am going to do.”
— David Freddoso is an NRO staff reporter and author of The Case Against Barack Obama.