By Patrick F. Cannon

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has thrown in the towel and said he would no longer enforce a dress code on the Senate floor. In case you didn’t know it, members were expected to wear a suit and tie when doing the nation’s business. Apparently, some senators, most notably the junior senator from Pennsylvania, John Fetterman, who prefers shorts and hoodies, chafed under this tyranny.

As it happens, Fetterman looks uncomfortable no matter what he’s wearing. He towers over his fellow legislators – he’s 6 feet eight inches tall and a bit portly – and doesn’t seem capable of buying a suit that fits, despite his wealth. Nor does he look much more at ease in those shorts and hoodies. What 54-year-old man does?

I imagine he got out of the habit of wearing suits when he was mayor of Braddock, PA; coincidentally, the town were I was born. As a graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School, he thought he could revitalize this dying Pittsburgh-area mill town. He failed, even though he got a good deal of publicity for giving it the good old college try. Braddock had about 20,000 folks at its height; in the 2020 Census, they could find only 1,721.

When my father served two terms on its city council just before and during World War II, its steel mill was belching fire and smoke 24-7. Prosperity persisted for a few years after the war, then, like all of Western Pennsylvania, a steady decline began. Anyway, we moved to Chicago in 1946, where he had a good job offer. He died when I was 12, but I rarely saw him dressed in anything but a suit and tie. His idea of casual was taking off the tie and suit coat. I’m sure he never wore shorts.

Maybe the Senate should have casual Fridays. When my employer did this, a colleague of mine complied by simply taking off his tie. He just could not bring himself to don a pair of chinos and a sports shirt. Can you imagine Chuck Grassley in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt? How about Mitch McConnell in jeans and a pink polo? Or Susan Collins in pedal pushers and a halter top? Imagine the floor of the Senate looking like a Pickleball court in Naples, Florida. Oh, the horror!

I have written about this a few times, but let me remind you that I think respect for decorum is still important – maybe even more important in a world of declining standards of courtesy and appearance. I just got back from France, where I visited several historic churches and cathedrals. Even though I’m a lapsed Catholic, I automatically removed my cap when I entered. Needless to say, I was in the minority. To most visitors, it was just another interesting tourist attraction. I was on a riverboat cruise. At only two dinners were we asked to wear a jacket (but no tie). This was widely ignored.

Many of you will remember the days when first-class restaurants required gentlemen to wear a jacket and tie. Some even had a supply of ill-fitting “house” jackets and ties to provide to customers who dared show up sans proper attire. Now? In deadly fear of losing even one customer, even slobs wearing backwards ball caps are permitted to spend hundreds of their dollars on sparse “tasting” menus.

There are some holdouts. I often drive past the venerable River Forest (IL) Tennis Club. Members and guests who play there must wear whites. I applaud them for holding the line. After all, there are plenty of places to play the game dressed like a slob. We all know that the quality of members of Congress is at its lowest ever, but they could at least pretend to take their jobs seriously enough to dress like ladies and gentlemen.

Copyright 2023, Patrick F. Cannon