Stewart Udall 1920-2010

Stewart Udall, lawyer, congressman and - on a preservationist yardstick - the most successful US Secretary of the Interior - died today.  He came from a family of jurists, most of whom would also enter politics (Washington had - and still has - "oodles of Udalls").  Both his father and uncle were Chief Justices of the Supreme Court in their state (AZ).  His son is a lawyer (and as of 2008 the junior US Senator from NM).  His brother (and former law partner), Congressman Morris Udall, had a fairly serious shot at the Democratic nomination for President in 1976, until Jimmy Carter (via his proxy Detroit mayor Coleman Young) managed, with uncharacteristic skill, to play the race card AND the religious bigotry card all at once.