- Senator from Wisconsin 1957-1989, always winning easily with up to 73% of the vote

- became Senator in a special election after Joseph McCarthy's death

- got started in politics as a state senator 1951-52 and then lost several races for governor

- did counterintelligence work as a private in the Army during WW II

- outspoken critic of the Vietnam War and wasteful military spending, but not anti-military

- most famous for his monthly Golden Fleece Award, which he used to highlight what he saw as frivolous government spending

- He overdid the award thing at least once, in 1976 when he had to settle a libel suit from a scientist studying aggressiveness in monkey.

- His opposition to spending bills was part of a "maverick" independent streak that annoyed party leaders on both sides.

- was known for his marathon filibusters, including one opposing the raising of the debt ceiling

- He supported dairy price supports which might seem hypocritical, but he was Senator from Wisconsin, America's Dairyland.

- born to a well-to-do family in Illinois, moving to Wisconsin for a newspaper job from which he was fired for his labor activities and impertinence

- married a great-great-niece of John D. Rockefeller, but divorced and remarried 9 years later

- known as a fitness enthusiast, jogging to the Capitol building and writing two books on health

- wrote at least four books on wasteful government spending

- a bit vain for a senator, getting hair transplants and a facelift