To: tejek who wrote (774214 ) 3/12/2014 11:21:29 AM From: tbolding Read Replies (2) | Respond to "The dry Republican majority was ousted, and replaced by a wet Democratic majority that supported the repeal of Prohibition . [5] "(Republicans hypocrisy hasn't changed in the last 80 years.)George L. Cassiday, Sr. (1892–1967) was one of the leading Congressional bootleggers during National Prohibition . Known as “the man in the green hat,” he sold liquor for ten years to congressmen and senators. In October 1930, he came forward and told his story in five front-page articles in the Washington Post . The articles pointed out Congressional hypocrisy and made the public even more jaded about Prohibition. His admission made national news and impacted the midterm Congressional elections just a week later. [1] WCTU family in Wheeling, West Virginia, Cassiday (pronounced “Cass-i-day'”) fought in World War I and founded the Irish War Veterans association. When he couldn’t qualify for his pre-war job working for the Pennsylvania Railroad, he came to bootlegging almost by accident. “A friend of mine told me that liquor was bringing better prices on Capitol Hill than anywhere else in Washington and that a living could be made supplying the demand,” he wrote in the Post. His first customers were two southern congressmen, both who had voted for the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act . [2] Cannon House Office Building from 1920–1925, then shifted to the Russell Senate Office Building after his 1925 arrest, as he noted that senators were more discreet. After his final arrest in February 1930, Cassiday agreed to stop bootlegging. That fall, he agreed to write a series of five articles for The Washington Post . With the exception of naming names, he told his entire story, including how he got his start, where he bought the booze, how he smuggled it in, and how Congress gave him an office to work out of. The series ran October 24–29, 1930 (the Post ran an introductory article on October 23). The final article ran exactly one week before the midterm election day.[3] [4] Cassiday’s articles in The Washington Post were a contributing factor to the Republican defeat in the 1930 midterm election. The dry Republican majority was ousted, and replaced by a wet Democratic majority that supported the repeal of Prohibition . [5]
