A clueless Claiborne Pell pops up on Chris Matthews’ show
December 28th, 2011 at 10:48 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
Rhode Island’s late U.S. Sen. Claiborne Pell got a brief mention on Tuesday night’s edition of “Hardball with Chris Matthews” on MSNBC. During a discussion of a new Washington Post report about the growing wealth of federal lawmakers, Matthews related this anecdote:
There was a muddy day up in Rhode Island one time, and Claiborne Pell – the elite Claiborne Pell – borrowed some galoshes from a young guy. And he brought it to back to him and he said, “Where’d you get these from?” And he said, “I got it from Thom McAn.” And [Pell] said, “Would you thank Thom for me?” He had no recognition of the human experience.
For my fellow Millennials who are scratching their heads at the story, Thom McAn was apparently a chain store owned by the Melville Corporation, the forerunner of CVS Caremark, that sold shoes.
You can watch the “Hardball” clip here. (MSNBC.com’s embed code isn’t working.) Thanks to reader JA for the tip. The Thom McAn story is also told in G. Wayne Miller’s new biography of Pell, “An Uncommon Man.”
Tags: chris matthews, claiborne pell, cvs, elite, hardball, history, politics, thom mcan, u.s. senate
Nesi's Notes covers politics and the economy in and around Rhode Island for WPRI.com. (Twitter: 
As Generation X-er, I was not puzzled by the reference to Thom McAn. But I was puzzled as to why that shoe chain was selling stew, and why Senator Pell was applying the stew to his feet. Perhaps he meant to put on galoshes instead.
That may be the wittiest correction I’ve ever received – I’ve now fixed “goulashes” to “galoshes.” Thank you!
Apologies for my own typo! Should be “As a Generation-Xer.”
No recognition of the “human experience”? Sounds more like he had no recognition of Thom McAn.
Im sure when the good Senator was behind close doors cutting deals, he always thanked his hush puppies.