Margolis: In the room where history was made

Garrison Nelson, a political science professor, is in his 50th year of teaching at the University of Vermont. File photo(Editor’s note: Jon Margolis writes political columns for VTDigger.)
John W. McCormack was a very important fellow. From 1929 through 1970 – that’s from Calvin Coolidge’s presidency to Richard Nixon’s – he served in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was majority leader for seven years, speaker of the House for nine, and for 14 months was