Sandy, left, and Carl
National Public Radio pays tribute to the Levin Brothers, Sen. Carl, 79, and Rep. Sandy, 82, as they sit together for the final time at a State of the Union speech.
David Welna reports:
During President Obama's speech Tuesday night, Sen. Carl Levin will be doing what he's done at every State of the Union for decades: sitting with his older brother and fellow Michigan Democrat Rep. Sandy Levin.
No two siblings in the nation's history have served longer than the 32 years the brothers Levin have been together in Congress. Both have held powerful committee chairmanships.
But this will be their last State of the Union together. Carl, who was first elected to Congress four years before his brother, has decided to retire at the end of the year.
Welna touches upon the Levins' youth in Detroit.
Growing up in an intellectual, politically engaged Jewish household in Detroit, the Levins say, talk at their dinner table often turned to family heroes — Joe Louis, the first African-American to win the heavyweight boxing title; Detroit Tigers first baseman Hank Greenberg, the first Jewish athlete to garner national fame; Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and Harry Truman.
Carl now calls himself a Midwest progressive; Sandy's politics are almost identical — based on, he says, a concern for the underdog.
