FILE -
In this
Thursday,
Dec. 4,
2014
file
photo,
Senate
Armed
Services
Committee
Chairman
Sen.
Carl
Levin,
D-Mich.,
attends
a news
conference
about
the
release
of a
Pentagon
report
on
sexual
assault
in the
military,
at the
Capitol
in
Washington.
Former
Sen.
Carl
Levin, a
powerful
voice
for the
military
during
his
career
as
Michigan’s
longest-serving
U.S.
senator,
has
died.
The
Democrat
was 87.
Levin’s
family
says
Levin
died
Thursday,
July 29,
2021.
(AP
Photo/J.
Scott
Applewhite,
File) |
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FILE -
In this
April
11, 2016
file
photo,
former
U.S.
Sen.
Carl
Levin,
left,
stands
with his
brother,
Congressman
Sander
Levin
before
an
unveiling
of the
USS Carl
M. Levin
during a
ceremony
in
Detroit.
Former
Sen.
Carl
Levin, a
powerful
voice
for the
military
during
his
career
as
Michigan’s
longest-serving
U.S.
senator,
has
died.
The
Democrat
was 87.
Levin’s
family
says
Levin
died
Thursday,
July 29,
2021.(AP
Photo/Carlos
Osorio
File) |
|
Carl
Levin,
Michigan's
longest-serving
senator,
dies at
87
By
MIKE
HOUSEHOLDER,
COREY
WILLIAMS
and
DAVID
EGGERT
apnews.com
DETROIT
- Famous
for
gazing
over
eyeglasses
worn on
the end
of his
nose,
Carl
Levin
seemed
at ease
wherever
he went,
whether
attending
a
college
football
game
back
home in
Michigan
or
taking
on a
multibillion-dollar
corporation
before
cameras
on
Capitol
Hill.
Michigan’s
longest-serving
U.S.
senator
had a
slightly
rumpled,
down-to-earth
demeanor
that
helped
him win
over
voters
throughout
his
36-year
career,
as did
his
staunch
support
for the
hometown
auto
industry.
But the
Harvard-educated
attorney
also was
a
respected
voice on
military
issues,
spending
years
leading
the
powerful
Senate
Armed
Services
Committee.
Despite
his
record
tenure
and
status,
he kept
his role
in
perspective.
At his
direction,
the
portraits
of all
38
senators
who had
served
before
or with
him
since
Michigan’s
statehood
in 1837
were
hung in
his
office
conference
room.
Two
empty
spaces
were
reserved
for
future
senators.
“I’m
part of
a long
trail of
people
who have
represented
Michigan,”
Levin
said in
2008.
“I’m
just
part of
that
history.
The
people
coming
after me
... can
pick up
where I
leave
off,
whoever
they
might
be.”
The
former
taxi
driver
and
auto-line
worker,
who for
decades
kept his
faded
1953
union
card in
his
wallet,
died
Thursday
at 87.
His
family
and the
Levin
Center
at Wayne
State
University’s
law
school
did not
release
a cause
of death
in an
evening
statement.
He had
been
living
with
lung
cancer
since
age 83.
“We
are all
devastated
by his
loss.
But we
are
filled
with
gratitude
for all
of the
support
that
Carl
received
throughout
his
extraordinary
life and
career,
enabling
him to
touch so
many
people
and
accomplish
so much
good,”
the
statement
said.
First
elected
to the
Senate
in 1978,
Levin
represented
Michigan
longer
than any
other
senator,
targeting
tax
shelters,
supporting
manufacturing
jobs and
pushing
for
military
funding.
His
tenure
was a
testament
to
voters’
approval
of the
slightly
rumpled,
down-to-earth
Detroit
native
whom
Time
magazine
ranked
among
the
nation’s
10 best
senators
in 2006.
“He’s
just a
very
decent
person,”
Democratic
Sen.
Jack
Reed of
Rhode
Island,
a fellow
Senate
Armed
Services
Committee
member,
said in
2008.
“He’s
unpretentious,
unassuming.
He never
forgets
that
what
we’re
doing is
enmeshed
with the
lives of
the
people
he
represents.”
A
Washington
insider
and
former
prosecutor
known
for his
professorial
bearing,
Levin
took a
civil
but
straightforward
approach
that
allowed
him to
work
effectively
with
Republicans
and
fellow
Democrats.
He was
especially
astute
on
defense
matters
thanks
to his
years as
the top
Democrat
on the
Senate
Armed
Services
Committee.
And
he
didn’t
fear
speaking
his
mind.
He
was in
the
minority
— even
among
his
Democratic
Senate
colleagues
— when
he voted
against
sending
U.S.
troops
to Iraq
in 2002,
and two
years
later he
said
President
George
W.
Bush’s
administration
had
“written
the book
on how
to
mismanage
a war.”
He gave
a
cautious
endorsement
to
President
Barack
Obama’s
2009
buildup
of
troops
in
Afghanistan,
but
later
warned
of “the
beginnings
of
fraying”
of
Democratic
support.
He
was also
critical
of
President
Ronald
Reagan’s
buildup
of
nuclear
weapons,
saying
it came
at the
expense
of
conventional
weapons
needed
to
maintain
military
readiness.
But,
colleagues
said, he
almost
always
engendered
a
feeling
of
respect.
“We’ve
always
had a
very
trusting
and
respectful
relationship,”
the
late-Republican
Sen.
John
Warner,
who
worked
closely
for
years
with
Levin on
the
Armed
Services
Committee,
once
said.
“We do
not try
to pull
surprises
on each
other.
The
security
of the
nation
and the
welfare
of the
armed
services
come
first.”
Famous
for
wearing
his
eyeglasses
down on
his
nose,
Levin
seemed
to be
the same
candid,
hardworking
guy
wherever
he went,
whether
he was
in front
of
cameras
on
Capitol
Hill, on
an
overseas
fact-finding
mission
or lost
in the
crowd of
a
college
football
stadium
on game
day.
“No
one
would
accuse
Carl
Levin of
looking
like
Hollywood’s
version
of a
U.S.
Senator.
He’s
pudgy,
balding
and
occasionally
rumpled,
and he
constantly
wears
his
glasses
at the
very tip
of his
nose,”
Time
magazine
said in
its 2006
article
ranking
the
senator
among
the
country’s
best.
“Still,
the
Michigan
Democrat
has
gained
respect
from
both
parties
for his
attention
to
detail
and deep
knowledge
of
policy,
especially
in his
role as
a
vigilant
monitor
of
businesses
and
federal
agencies.”
A
foe of
fraud
and
waste,
Levin
led an
investigation
in 2002
into
Enron
Corp.,
which
had
declared
bankruptcy
the
previous
year
amid
financial
scandals.
The
probe
contributed
to a new
federal
law that
requires
executives
to sign
off on
financial
statements
so they
could be
criminally
liable
for
posting
phony
numbers.
Levin
pushed
legislation
designed
to crack
down on
offshore
tax
havens,
which he
said
cost the
U.S.
government
at least
$100
billion
a year
in lost
taxes.
He also
was an
advocate
for stem
cell
research
and gun
control.
Closer
to home,
Levin
promoted
policies
benefiting
the auto
industry
and
supported
giving
$25
billion
in loan
guarantees
to
General
Motors
and
Chrysler.
He
argued
that a
vibrant
domestic
auto
industry
was
crucial
to
rebuilding
the
economy
after
the
Great
Recession.
He also
was a
member
of a
task
force
supporting
efforts
to fight
pollution
and
other
environmental
problems
affecting
the
Great
Lakes.
“If
you’ve
ever
worn the
uniform,
worked a
shift on
an
assembly
line, or
sacrificed
to make
ends
meet,
then
you’ve
had a
voice
and a
vote in
Sen.
Carl
Levin,”
Obama
said in
2013.
“No one
has
worked
harder
to bring
manufacturing
jobs
back to
our
shores,
close
unfair
tax
loopholes
and
ensure
that
everyone
plays by
the same
set of
rules.”
Carl
Milton
Levin
was born
in
Detroit
on June
28,
1934,
and he
stayed
in the
Motor
City for
most of
his
life.
After
high
school,
he spent
time as
a taxi
driver
and
worked
on auto
assembly
plant
lines to
help put
himself
through
school.
Always
proud of
having
helped
build
the
DeSoto
and Ford
trucks
at a
plant in
Highland
Park, he
held
onto his
United
Auto
Workers
union
membership
card for
decades.
That
ended
when his
wallet
was
stolen.
He
earned a
bachelor’s
degree
in
political
science
from
Swarthmore
College
in 1956,
and a
law
degree
from
Harvard
in 1959.
He
married
his
wife,
Barbara,
two
years
later,
and
together
they
raised
three
daughters.
Levin
fell in
line
with his
family’s
strong
sense of
civic
duty in
1964,
when he
was
named an
assistant
state
attorney
general
and the
first
general
counsel
for the
Michigan
Civil
Rights
Commission.
His
older
brother,
former
longtime
U.S.
Rep.
Sander
“Sandy”
Levin,
had a
liberal
voting
record
on many
social
issues,
while
their
father
served
on the
Michigan
Corrections
Commission,
a
citizens’
group
that
oversaw
prison
operations,
and
their
mother
volunteered
for a
Jewish
organization.
Carl
Levin
was
Michigan’s
only
Jewish
senator.
He once
said
that
public
service
was in
his DNA,
and
politics
often
was
discussed
at the
dinner
table
when he
was a
boy.
He
dove
into
public
office
when
Detroit
voters
elected
him to
the City
Council
in 1969,
and he
served
as its
president
before
ousting
a
Republican
to win
the 1978
Senate
race. He
won the
seat
five
more
times
but
decided
against
running
for a
seventh
term in
2014.
Democratic
Gov.
Gretchen
Whitmer
called
Levin a
“champion
for
Michigan.”
“He
saw what
we were
capable
of when
we came
to the
table as
Michiganders,
as
Americans,
to get
things
done,”
she
said.
“Carl
devoted
his life
to
public
service,
and it
us up to
us to
follow
his
example.”
After
his
retirement,
the
Levin
Center
at Wayne
Law was
established
to
promote
fact-based,
bipartisan
oversight
by
Congress
and
state
legislatures
and to
encourage
civil
dialogue
on
public
policy
issues.
He
chaired
the
center
and
co-taught
law
courses.
He also
was a
partner
and
distinguished
counsel
at the
Honigman
law firm
in
Detroit.
His
memoir,
“Getting
to the
Heart of
the
Matter:
My 36
Years in
the
Senate,”
was
published
in
March.
The Navy
named a
destroyer
for him
to honor
his
years of
public
service.
His
nephew,
Andy
Levin,
was
reelected
in 2020
to his
father’s
9th
Congressional
District
seat
that
represents
parts of
suburban
Detroit.
“Carl
Levin
personified
integrity
and the
notion
of
putting
the
public
good
above
self-interest,”
Andy
Levin
said,
calling
him “the
very
picture
of sober
purpose
and
rectitude.
In
truth,
he
wasn’t
unfun.
In fact,
he often
pierced
tense
situations
with
self-deprecating
humor,
and he
privately
shared
incisive
observations
about
others
with
staff
and
colleagues.”
Carl
Levin is
survived
by his
wife,
their
three
adult
daughters,
Kate,
Laura
and
Erica,
and
several
grandchildren.
There
will be
a
private
funeral.
Information
about a
public
memorial
will be
forthcoming.
___
Eggert
reported
from
Lansing,
Michigan.
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