By Andy Brack, editor and publisher  |  “The ox is in the ditch.”

That’s an adage frequently offered by Fritz Hollings, South Carolina’s larger-than-life former governor and United States senator who passed away April 6 at age 97.But what did it mean?

Meet the Press host Tim Russert once asked Hollings with a twinkle in his eye.Hollings, who often used colloquial sayings to make a point, explained that when an ox hauling a wagon went into a ditch in the olden days, it took more than the ox to pull the wagon out of the ditch.  It took several people working as a team to make things right.

So when Hollings, who retired in 2005 after a 38-year Senate career, talked about oxen and ditches and national budgetary, trade or jobs problems, he was saying the country needed to pull together and work as a team to get us out of a particular ditch.