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James Ralph Sasser
United States Senator from Tennessee
In office January 3, 1977 – January 3, 1995
Preceded by	Bill Brock
Succeeded by	Bill Frist
6th United States Ambassador to China
In office February 14, 1996 – July 1, 1999
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	J. Stapleton Roy
Succeeded by	Joseph Prueher
Personal details
Born	(1936-09-30) September 30, 1936 (age 75) Memphis, Tennessee
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Mary Sasser
Religion	Baptist

James Ralph "Jim" Sasser (born September 30, 1936) is an American politician and attorney. A Democrat, Sasser served three terms as a United States Senator from Tennessee (1977–1995) and was Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. From 1995 to 1999, during the Clinton Administration, he was the United States Ambassador to China.

Early life and career[link]

James Ralph Sasser was born in Memphis, Tennessee on September 30, 1936. He attended public schools in Nashville. Sasser attended the University of Tennessee from 1954 to 1955, where he joined the Lambda Chapter of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity. He earned his undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University in 1958; followed by his law degree from Vanderbilt Law School in 1961. He was admitted to the Tennessee Bar in 1961 and began practicing law in Nashville.

From 1957 to 1963, Sasser served in the United States Marine Corps Reserves.^[1]

Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, Jim Sasser was a long time Democratic activist, manager of Albert Gore, Sr.'s unsuccessful 1970 reelection campaign. A lawyer by trade, Sasser sought election in his own right and won his party's 1976 nomination for the Senate. He defeated, among others, Nashville entrepreneur and attorney John Jay Hooker, then still considered to be a serious candidate due to his strong personality, his (intermittent) wealth, and his connections with the Nashville Tennessean's controlling Seigenthaler family. His son Gray Sasser, also a lawyer, is the past chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party.

Senate Campaigns[link]

1976 Election[link]

Sasser and Jimmy Carter during a meeting with senators, June 15, 1977

Upon winning his party's Senate nomination, Sasser set out to attack the record of one-term incumbent Sen. Bill Brock, heir to a Chattanooga candy fortune. Sasser emphasized Brock's connections to former President Richard M. Nixon and his use of income tax code provisions that had, despite his great wealth and considerable income, resulted in his paying less than $2,000 in income tax the previous year. Sasser was able to capitalize on the tax issue by pointing out that Brock had paid less than many Tennesseans of considerably more modest means.

Sasser's campaign was also greatly aided by the efforts of ex-Senator Gore. Brock had defeated the elder Gore for the Senate in 1970 largely upon the basis of Gore's support for civil rights, his friendship with the Kennedy political family, and his opposition to the Vietnam War. Sasser won rather handily over Brock, and went on to serve three Senate terms.

Re-election, 1982 and 1988[link]

He turned back a serious effort against him by five-term United States Representative Robin Beard very handily in 1982. That showing was so impressive that his 1988 Republican opponent was a virtual political unknown named Bill Andersen, whose underfunded, essentially token campaign never stood a chance.

Senate accomplishments[link]

With the retirement of Senator Lawton Chiles in 1989, Sasser became Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. In that role, he served as a key ally of Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell of Maine. Sasser helped negotiate the 1990 budget summit agreement with President George H. W. Bush. And in 1993, he engineered passage of President Bill Clinton's first budget, which reduced the deficit by $500 billion dollars over 10 years^[2][3] but passed without any Republican votes.

With this success under his belt, began to work his way upward in the party leadership. When Leader Mitchell announced his intention to retire, it seemed to be a foregone conclusion that upon his re-election in 1994 Sasser would be the new majority leader.

1994 campaign[link]

There were two unforeseen events that negated this scenario. One was the large scale of discontent that the American people seemed to have toward the first two years of the Clinton administration, especially the proposal for a national health-care system largely put together and advocated by Clinton's wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton. The other was the somewhat unexpected nomination of Nashville heart transplant surgeon Bill Frist for the seat by the Republicans.

Frist was a political unknown and a total novice (who never voted until he was 36) at campaigning, but was from one of Nashville's most prominent and wealthiest medical families, which gave him name recognition (in the Nashville area, at least), and resources adequate to match the campaign war chest built up by a typical three-term incumbent, a challenge most "insurgent" candidates find to be impossible. A further factor working to Frist's advantage was a simultaneous Republican campaign by actor and attorney Fred Thompson for the other Tennessee Senate seat, which came open when Al Gore had resigned to become Vice President of the United States. To an extent, Frist was able to bask in the reflected glory of this formidable stage presence, and additionally developed some campaigning skills, which were almost totally absent in the early stages of his campaign. Another factor in Frist's favor was that Sasser was never seen as possessing much charisma of his own. During the campaign Nashville radio stations were derisive towards Sasser to the point of stating that he could only win "a Kermit The Frog lookalike contest." In one of the largest upsets in a night of political upsets in the November 1994 U.S. general elections, Frist defeated the 16 years older incumbent Sasser by approximately 14 percentage points.

Ambassador to China[link]

Sasser went on to serve as ambassador to China during the period of alleged nuclear spying and the campaign finance controversy that involved possible efforts by China to influence domestic U.S. politics during the Clinton Administration. Sasser again gained media attention when the U.S. Embassy in Beijing was besieged after U.S. warplanes mistakenly bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the U.S. intervention in the Kosovo War. Shortly after the siege of the embassy was lifted, Ambassador Sasser retired (he was slated to do so before the siege, so his retirement was not a direct result) and returned to the United States, where he presently divides his time between Tennessee and Washington, D.C., as a consultant.

Electoral history[link]

• 1976 Democratic Primary for U.S. Senate (TN)
  • Jim Sasser, 44%
  • John Jay Hooker, 31%
  • Harry Sadler, 10%
  • David Bolin, 8%

• 1976 General Election for U.S. Senate (TN)
  • Jim Sasser (D), 52%
  • Bill Brock (R) (inc.), 47%

• 1982 General Election for U.S. Senate (TN)
  • Jim Sasser (D) (inc.), 62%
  • Robin Beard (R), 38%

• 1988 General Election for U.S. Senate (TN)
  • Jim Sasser (D) (inc.), 65%
  • Bill Andersen (R), 35%

• 1994 General Election for U.S. Senate (TN)
  • Bill Frist (R), 56%
  • Jim Sasser (D) (inc.), 42%

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Beiler, David (1995-04). "Surgical Precision: How Senate Power Jim Sasser Was Stomped by a Political Novice in Tennessee". Campaigns and Elections. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2519/is_n4_v16/ai_16946739. Retrieved 2006-02-22. 

• "Sasser, James Ralph (1936– )". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000068. Retrieved 2007-04-22. 

v t e United States Senators from Tennessee Class 1 Cocke A. Jackson Smith J. Anderson Campbell Eaton Grundy Foster Grundy Nicholson Foster Turney Jones Johnson Patterson Brownlow Johnson Key Bailey H. Jackson Whitthorne Bate Frazier Lea McKellar Gore, Sr. Brock III Sasser Frist Corker Class 2 Blount J. Anderson Cocke Smith Whiteside Campbell Wharton Williams A. Jackson White A. Anderson Jarnagin Bell Nicholson Fowler Cooper Harris Turley Carmack Taylor Sanders Webb Shields Tyson Brock I Hull Bachman Berry Stewart Kefauver Walters Bass Baker Gore, Jr. Mathews Thompson Alexander

v t e Chairmen of the United States Senate Committee on the Budget Muskie • Hollings • Domenici • Chiles • Sasser • Domenici • Conrad • Domenici • Conrad • Nickles • Gregg • Conrad

v t e United States Ambassadors to China Envoys to the Qing Empire 1843-1858 Caleb Cushing 1843-44 · Alexander Hill Everett 1845-47 · John Wesley Davis 1848-50 · Humphrey Marshall 1852-54 · Robert Milligan McLane 1853-54 · Peter Parker 1855-57 · William B. Reed 1857-58 Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plentipotentiary to the Qing Empire 1858-1913 John Elliott Ward 1858-60 · Anson Burlingame 1861-67 · John Ross Browne 1868-69 · Frederick F. Low 1869-73 · Benjamin Avery 1874-75 · George Seward 1876-80 · James Burrill Angell 1880-81 · John Russell Young 1882-85 · Charles Harvey Denby 1885-98 · Edwin H. Conger 1898-05 · William Woodville Rockhill 1905-09 · William James Calhoun 1909-13 Envoy to the Republic of China 1913-1929 Paul Samuel Reinsch 1913-19 · Charles Richard Crane 1920-21 · Jacob Gould Schurman 1921-25 · John MacMurray 1925-29 Ambassador to the Republic of China 1929-1949 Nelson T. Johnson 1929-41 · Clarence E. Gauss 1941-44 · Patrick J. Hurley 1944-45 · John Leighton Stuart 1946-49 · Embassy in Taipei 1949-Pres. Chiefs of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing 1973-79 David K. E. Bruce 1973-74 · George H. W. Bush 1974-75 · Thomas S. Gates, Jr. 1976-77 · Leonard Woodcock 1977-79 Ambassador to the People's Republic of China 1979-Present Leonard Woodcock 1979-81 · Arthur W. Hummel, Jr. 1981-85 · Winston Lord 1985-89 · James R. Lilley 1989-91 · J. Stapleton Roy 1991-95 · Jim Sasser 1996-99 · Joseph Prueher 1999-01 · Clark T. Randt, Jr. 2001-09 · Jon Huntsman, Jr. 2009-11 · Gary Locke 2011-

Be with Me is a 2005 Singaporean drama film directed by Eric Khoo. The film is inspired by the life of deaf-and-blind teacher Theresa Poh Lin Chan. It premiered as the Director's Fortnight selection in the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. It was also the official entry from Singapore for the 78th Academy Awards in the foreign language category. In December 2005, the Academy body disqualified the film on grounds that the dialogue is mainly in English.^[1] Out of 93 minutes, the film only has two and a half minutes of dialogue.

Be with Me is the first film in Singapore to explicitly feature a lesbian relationship.^{[citation needed]}

Cast[link]

• Ng Sway Ah as Father
• Sanwan Bin Rais as Security Supervisor
• Theresa Poh Lin Chan as Herself
• John Choong as Sam's father
• Elizabeth Choy as Herself
• Leong Kooi Eng as Mother
• Lim Poey Huang as Jackie's mother
• Seet Keng Yew as Fatty Koh
• Shaun Koh as Sam's brother
• Ezann Lee as Jackie
• Poh Huat Lim as Brother
• Sherry Lim as Sam's mother
• Toh Cheng Onn as Neighbour
• Lynn Poh as Ann
• Chiew Sung Ching as Shopkeeper
• Jason Tan as Brian
• Royston Tan
• Samantha Tan as Sam
• Maximilan Wong as Neighbour's son
• Lawrence Yong

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Be with Me at the Internet Movie Database
• Be with Me at AllRovi

v t e Cinema of Singapore Actors Films A-Z Films of 1990s to 2009 Films of 2010 Films of 2011 Directors Screenwriters Producers Films by gross takings Films set in Singapore Cinemas Festivals Studios

This article about a 2000s romance film is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

William A. "Lefty" James (July 1, 1889 – May 3, 1933) was a Major League Baseball pitcher who played for three seasons. He pitched for the Cleveland Naps from 1912 to 1914.

External links[link]

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)

This biographical article relating to an American baseball pitcher born in the 1880s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e