John Danforth
John Claggett Danforth (born September 5, 1936), also referred to as Jack Danforth, is a former United States Ambassador to the United Nations and former United States Senator from Missouri.
A political moderate who is respected by members of both parties, Danforth was once quoted as saying he joined the Republican Party for "the same reason you sometimes choose which movie to see — [it's] the one with the shortest line".
An heir to the Ralston Purina fortune, Danforth was born in 1936 in Saint Louis, Missouri. He graduated from Princeton University in 1958 and then received graduate degrees from Yale University in both Divinity and Law. He served as Missouri's Attorney General from 1969 to December, 1976, when he succeeded retiring Senator Stuart Symington in the U.S. Senate. Danforth's initial Democratic opponent, Congressman Jerry Litton, died in an airplane crash the night he won the Democratic primary. Former Governor Warren Hearnes was chosen as the nominee after Litton's death, but lost the general election to Danforth. Danforth was re-elected in 1982 and 1988. He retired from the Senate in 1995.
During the Clarence Thomas hearings of 1991, Danforth used his considerable clout to aid the confirmation of Thomas, a former Danforth aide and protegé.
In 1999, Democratic U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno appointed Danforth to lead the investigation into the FBI's role in the Waco, Texas/Branch Davidian disaster of 1993.
In July 2000, Danforth's name was leaked as being on the short list of potential vice presidential nominees for Republican candidate George W. Bush, along with Michigan Governor John Engler, New York Governor George Pataki, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, and former American Red Cross President Elizabeth Dole.
Just one week before the Republican nominating convention was to be held in Philadelphia, campaign sources said that Dick Cheney, the man charged with leading the selection process for the nominee, had recommended Danforth to Bush for the position [1]. Bush secretly met with Danforth at a hotel in Chicago, and three days later Danforth held a press conference stating he would be stepping-down from his appointed role in the Waco investigations because an unforeseen political opportunity had suddenly come-up. However, despite growing speculation that Danforth was Bush's final pick, Bush selected Cheney himself for the position.
However, in September 2001, Republican President George W. Bush appointed Danforth a special envoy to Sudan.
As an ordained Episcopal priest, Danforth officiated the funeral services of former president Ronald Reagan on June 11, 2004 at the Washington National Cathedral. He also did the same for Washington Post executive Katharine Graham in 2001, also at the National Cathedral.
On July 1, 2004, Danforth was sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, succeeding John Negroponte, who had left his post after becoming the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq on June 23, 2004. Danforth submitted his resignation on November 22, 2004, effective January 20, 2005.
In 2005, Danforth wrote two separate op-ed pieces in The New York Times criticizing the increasingly blurry line between church and state brought about by some Christian conservatives in the Republican Party. [2]
Danforth is married with five adult children.
