William B. Spong Senator Autograph Spong-Fong-Hong Kong Ping Pong Dong Bell Bill

Description

Untitled Document
You are bidding on an autograph from Senator William Belser Spong Jr. (September 29, 1920 ­ October 8, 1997) was a Democratic Party politician and a United States Senator who represented the state of Virginia from 1966 to 1973.
In 1966, Spong was personally recruited by President Lyndon Johnson to mount a primary challenge against 20-year incumbent Senator A. Willis Robertson. Johnson was angered at Robertson's opposition to the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. Spong defeated Robertson in one of the biggest upsets in Virginia political history and breezed to victory in November. Robertson resigned on December 31, 1966; Governor Mills Godwin appointed Spong to the seat, giving Spong higher seniority than other senators elected that November. Spong's primary victory marked the beginning of the end of the Byrd Organization's long dominance of Virginia politics. Spong's Senate career was short-lived; in 1972, he was narrowly defeated for reelection by 8th District Representative William L. Scott.
Spong would be the last Democrat elected to the Senate from Virginia until Chuck Robb's victory in 1988. Spong's Senate colleague, Harry F. Byrd Jr., became an independent in 1970.
A popular Internet joke claims[1] that William B. Spong of Virginia and Hiram Fong of Hawaii sponsored a bill recommending the mass ringing of church bells to welcome the arrival in Hong Kong of the U.S. Table Tennis Team after its tour of Communist China. The bill failed to pass, cheating the Senate out of passing the
Spong-Fong Hong Kong Ping Pong Ding Dong Bell Bill
.
In fact, Senator Spong never sponsored such a bill, but he did have some fun with the press soon after arriving in Washington, D.C. As described in an article by his cousin, the Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong, Senator Spong:
was invited with the other freshman senators to address the National Press Club. Fearful that someone on radio or television would call him Senator Sponge, he used his brief five-minute introductory speech to that body to secure proper name identification. His first act as a senator, he announced in his southern drawl, would be to introduce a bill to protect the rights of songwriters in Hong Kong. He would be joined in this effort by the senior senator of Louisiana, Russell Long, and the senior senator from Hawaii, Hiram Fong, and together they would present the Long Fong Spong Hong Kong Song Bill. His name was never mispronounced by members of the media.