With his caucus divided between conservatives and liberals , Barkley failed to secure passage for Roosevelt 's court-packing plan . After the successive failures of several administration-backed domestic bills , the press dubbed the Senate Majority Leader " bumbling Barkley " . He was able to salvage an appropriations bill to cover overspending by the WPA , although it allocated much less funding than Roosevelt had wanted . He helped secure the Hatch Act and '' The Washington Daily News '' called a 1940 amendment that prohibited campaigning by federally funded state employees a " monument to Alben Barkley 's persistence and parliamentary skill " . Despite this mixed record , Roosevelt believed some Democratic partisans hoped to nominate Barkley for president at the 1940 Democratic National Convention , but the German invasion of Poland on September 1 , 1939 , deepened his resolve to seek a third term
1940 Democratic National Convention
1940 Democratic National Convention
Alben W. Barkley