Old-timers these days sometimes bemoan the sad state of Congress in these times and yearn for the days of the giants. They recall such figures as Arthur Vandenberg, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during World War II. A former isolationist, he led his party into the world with the slogan, “Politics stops at the water’s edge,” and helped bring Republicans and Democrats together in a historic consensus that accepted the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe and U.S. membership in NATO.

Another great congressional figure was Wayne Morse, a maverick Republican-turned-Democrat, who was the first to oppose U.S. military intervention in Vietnam and was a leader in civil rights, education and international law issues.

And then there was Sen. Everett McKinley Dirksen, a rumpled golden-voiced orator best known for having said, “A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money.” But his greatness came when he shifted from being a major Republican critic of President Truman to an ardent supporter, as the Senate minority leader, of Lyndon Johnson’s ambitious civil rights program and war on poverty.

Each of those leaders had a sturdy independence of mind and action, a quality shared by Maine’s Sen. Margaret Chase Smith. They put the national interest ahead of mere party loyalty.

In today’s world, one whom some might consider a giant is Rep. Dick Armey, the House majority leader, who has decided not to run for a 10th term. Just lately, he led the House to vote to ban the Justice Department’s TIPS program for a corps of truck drivers, meter readers and others to report suspicious activities to the authorities. He called it a threat to American freedom. He also has warned President Bush against attacking Iraq and predicted the end of the trade embargo against Cuba.

Maine’s two senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both moderate Republicans, have demonstrated similar independence. They voted against the conviction of President Clinton after his impeachment by the House, they consistently support a woman’s reproductive rights and they have helped block the Bush administration’s plan to drill for oil in the arctic reserve in Alaska, among other issues.

If they keep up that sort of independence, old timers of the future could look back on them too as congressional giants.