Hubert Humphrey on Speed? What Would Hunter S. Thompson Think About This Revelation Concerning One of his Most Loathed Politicians?

Just read Hannah Jones' revelatory article in this week's edition of City pages entitled "So, Tommy James slipped Hubert Humphrey some speed this one night..."  

That's right, you heard me correctly, Tommy James the musician and leader of the Shondells once gave the then Vice President and 1968 Presidential candidate a "black beauty" (i.e. amphetamine pill) to help the drowsy Humphrey stay up after a long day on the campaign trail. 

This immediately set my mind to wondering on a multitude of questions, like "how in the hell did Mr. 'Crimson and Clover' get to know HHH ?" and "was it really a good idea to give someone with the exuberance of Mr. 'Pleased as Punch' an upper?".

Too bad Mr. James did not come forward with his "giving speed to Humphrey" story earlier, it might have softened Hunter S. Thompson's harsh view of Humphrey, a politician whom Hunter loathed even more than Nixon, and that is saying a lot.  

Hunter famously called Humphrey "...a treacherous, gutless old ward-heeler” and wrote had Humphrey won in 1968, (a Humphrey Administration) "... would have been equally corrupt and wrongheaded as Richard Nixon's, (but) far more devious...".  

Despite his eccentricities and excesses, Thompson  was, if anything, an immensely talented writer for sure, but equally as shrewd a political commentator.  

In an article he did for the New York Times on New Year's Day in 1974 entitled "Fear and Loathing in the Bunker", Thompson wrote prophetically: "This is the horror of American politics today—not that Richard Nixon and his fixers have been crippled, convicted, indicted, disgraced and even jailed — but that the only alternatives are not much better; the same dim collection of burned‐out hacks who have been fouling our air with their gibberish for the last twenty years. How long, oh Lord, how long? And how much longer will we have to wait before some high‐powered shark with a fistful of answers will finally bring us face‐to‐face with the ugly question that is already so close to the surface in this country, that sooner or later even politicians will have to cope with it?" Reading HST's old NYT article really makes you yearn for fearless political commentary and emphasizes what a profound loss it was to our democracy when Hunter lost his battle with his demons.