Ernest Hemingway once advised young authors
to write "one true sentence". Here is mine:
Michael Douglas playing the commander in
chief in The American President, said "these are serious times, that
demand serious people."
Yet looking at Washington today, Americans
think: "where have gone Joe DiMaggio, a
nation turns its lonely eyes to you?"
While our Capital is consumed with character
destruction and corruption there is carnage in
Iraq, chaos throughout the MIddle East, crisis
in Korea, and the collapse of credibility of our
leaders of government and our reputation and
deterrence around the world.
Our people are digusted by the conduct of
our government, and equally disgusted by
content of our campaigns, which in their
closing days, are deluging the nation with
one last helping of the dirtmongering, that
has brought the capital of our democracy
into nearly total disrepute, with our good
and decent citizenry.
I am proposing here that after the election
Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi go the President
and offer the kind of government America must
have in these troubled times, offering a new
spirit of national unity, bipartisanship, shared
purpose and a restoration of goodwill and civility in Washington.
To the old hands who read this, please bear
with me, I am addressing this to two groups, the
leaders themselves and to patriotic Americans
and young people who do not have insider
knowledge of Washington but have the innate
goodness and common sense that has always
made America a great nation.
Every leader in every field of endeavor needs
to think long and hard about recent studies
that show an epidemic of cheating by young
people in school. If the Crosby and Nash
song said "teach your children" what are we,
the elders, teaching the children, by our example?
What is at stake is more than the credibility
of our discredited politics, or the disasters of
our failed policies, or the distortions of our
democracy. What is at stake is the heart
and soul of whether we are a country of
warring factions who do anything to win,
or the country of the Statue of LIberty, a
melting pot of freedom in which leaders
bring out the best, not the worst, of our
diverse people.
Are we nation of domestic enemies, at war
with each other? Or a great American family,
in which we are all in this together?
I'm gonna tell a few stories, and name a few
names, all of which are true, all of which have
a purpose here. The sickening spectacle of
our national politics is not the way it has always been and is not the
way it has to be.
When my friend Jim and I came to Washington
as college freshmen, we paid a student trip to
the Capitol and of all people, we bumped into
Barry Goldwater. We shook his hand in the
Old Russell Senate Office Building, and he
sat down on the stairs and spent thirty minutes
talking to us. He actually offered us jobs in
his mailroom, even though we told him we
were Robert Kennedy Democrats. Once
upon a time in Washington, those things
actually happened.
I ended up working for Birch Bayh, a great
Senator, would have been a great president.
It was amazing in those days working with
Birch, and later with Lloyd Bentsen. At times
the staff would go to the Senate Floor, either
sitting in the back on couches, or sometimes,
on a major bill, they had these tiny humiliating
little chairs where we could sit right next to our
bosses during the debate.
What was amazing about those days was, we
could be on the Senate Floor and be within a
handshake of one great giant after another.
Large figures, historic figures, real giants.
Hubert Humphrey, Barry Goldwater, Walter
Mondale, Bob Dole, Lloyd Bentsen, Howard
Baker, George Mitchell, Nancy Kassebaum,
Birch Bayh, Jacob Javits, Bob Byrd, George
McGovern, Sam Nunn, Jack Danforth, Alan
Simpson, John Glenn and so many others.
It's a joke that every Senator privately thinks
he (or she) should be president. In those days,
there were probably 25 Senators from both
parties who would have made good presidents.
Every one of them had friends in the other
party, relationships of trust and respect, and
they often had friendships with Presidents,
including Presidents of the other party.
I remember on a civil rights bill, Birch Bayh
needed one more vote, and my boss Lloyd
Bentsen came in like the cavarly, and we
both went looking for his friend Jesse Helms.
Bentsen and Helms almost never agreed on
anything, but in the Senate there are all kinds
of friendships that the public never sees, which
is how our democracy survives. I found Helms
first, introduced myself in the subway car,
briefed him on the pros and cons of the bill, and amazingly, he did it.
"For Lloyd".
Young people might google former Senator
Phil Hart, type in the phrase "Phil Hart Saint
of the Senate", and you'll find the story about
him by that name. I knew Hart through his
daughter, and after he passed away got a
nice note from his wonderful wife Janey,
then a fierce anti-war protestor, but a beloved
Senate wife as Hart was a beloved Senator.
If a reporter wanted to write a piece today
about "the saint of the Senate" which Senator
would be chosen?
These kinds of relationships still exist. Ted
Kennedy and Orrin Hatch are a great example
of two Senators who are giants from opposite
parties, who get things done, together, for the
nation.
Which brings me to Harry Reid.
In the best sense of the phrase, Senator Reid
embodies the kind of old-fashioned Senator
who combines progressive ideals, with a respect and reverence for the
Senate as an institution. This is what America needs, a
reverence for the United States Senate, its
history and tradition, its unique role as a
genuinely great deliberative body, as a true
check and balance, as a partner on the great
war powers issues and the great decisions of
war and peace.
If our purpose is to restore public faith in our
constitutional democracy, and bring civility
and respect across the aisles, and set things
right in Washington, Harry Reid will make an
outstanding Senate Majority Leader with the
judgement and temperament not only to stand
on principle, but to reach out to the President
and good Republican Senators such as John
Warner and Chuck Hagel.
To young people, military families, moms and
dads, men and women of faith concerned about the direction of our
country and the failures in Washington, my point is this: what is
happening today is not the way it has always been, not
the way it has to be.
The same is historically true in the House of
Representatives. I worked for the House
Democratic Leadership during Republican
Presidencies. My most important job was
Legislative Director to Bill Alexander, then
Chief Deputy Majority Whip during the days
of Tip O'Neill and Jim Wright as Speaker and
Majority Leader.
I began that job during the Lebanon crisis,
the time when our Marines were killed in Beirut.
I remember very clearly, in private meetings
and secret sessions, Tip giving the order that
were going to work with Reagan and his people
and there would be no partisan criticism.
Every now and then the Speaker would gather
leadership and staff in his office late in the evening. Sometimes I
would be in the back of the room. The one night I remember the most,
Tip and the others were sitting around with brandy and cigars and he was
telling us how he had dinner with the Reagans the night before. How
charming they were and Tip said if he stayed there long enough,
President Reagan could charm anyone into anything.
No two people embodied partisan politics, very
strong philosophical opinion and toughness like
Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill. But they could
work together and get together when the good of the country required.
Same was true of Jim Wright, even more partisan, and in those days,
constantly under
attack from Newt and the right. I was in a
small meeting in Wright's office, on a national
security issue I was deeply involved in, when
a call came in from one of the highest ranking
people in the Reagan Adminisration, a name
everyone would know, who is still around.
I got up to leave, Wright put his finger across
his lips to signal me to keep quiet, and stay
put. Turns out the two giants were secretly
collaborating on a major issue that was on
the front page, two partisans, two warriors,
working together.
In those days when Reagan was meeting with
Gorbachev to change the world, some of his
biggest secret supporters were leaders of the
Democrats, while some of his biggest public
critics were leaders of the neoconservatives.
The point is, what is happening today with the
one party partisanship, the demonization and
character destruction politics, the divisions
in our country is not the normal way, it is the
deviant way. It is reminiscent of the Joseph McCarthy years and the
Nixon years. The
Washington I describe is much closer to the
way it was before I was born and after I will
die.
Which brings me to Nancy Pelosi.
To understand the Leader, think of Nancy Pelosi not as San Francisco but
as Baltimore.
She comes from a true street smart Democratic
family, and she comes from a close knit and
loving extended ethnic family with strong values
and strong minds.
The page scandal could never happen under
Speaker Pelosi, as it has happened under Speaker Hastert. For two
reasons. Sure
there will be Members in the future who will
do these things. But, the immediate reaction
of Nancy Pelosi would be simple, she would
view this as though it happened to one of
her children, and her immediate instinct would
be to castrate not protect the perpetrator.
And for this reason, and institutional respect,
she would have immediately told every member
of the page board, from both parties. Nancy
Pelosi comes from a political and personal
background that respects diversity and brings
people together. She is a tough cookie, and
she plays to win, but she views politics and
government as a collaborative process of
democracy. Nancy Pelosi is quintessentially
American and her Speakership I predict will
look like Tip O'Neill's in the best sense.
My advice to young people and everyone who
believes in higher standards and change is
to register, vote, find candidates to give a
little money to, volunteer time on election
day and understand that the way things
are, is not the normal way.
What is happening today in Washington is not
the way it has been before, it is ugly, strange,
deviant, and wrong. Almost every previous
president had relationships with leaders in the
other party, as Reagan did with Tip, as George
Herbert Walker Bush did with Chairman Dan
Rostenkowski. Almost every previous Senate
and House had serious working relationships
between Democrats and Republicans, with
courtesies and friendships and working respect
that are far too rare today.
The people are demanding change.
The people are demanding an end to the mindless and ugly partisanship.
The people are demanding the restoration of democratic
institutions, democratic civility, and democratic
attitudes and procedures The people are
demanding leaders in Washington who act
like adults with integrity, who put the country
ahead of their partisan interests and their
perpetual vindictiveness.
Therefore, my advice to Senator Reid and Congresswoman Pelosi, in the
final days of
the campaign is to go the country with a vision of what America will be,
with a Democratic Congress. A vision of the America that has
been, and can be, and should be, and must
be again, which is all our people ask for.
A vision offering the President a national unity
government with policies that work and a spirit
putting patriotism ahead of partisanship.
A vision that asks the President to abandon
disasterous policies that are privately or publicly
opposed by our commanders, and intelligence
services, and major allies, and learn from the
lessons of what has gone wrong.
A vision of a unity that brings us together with
bravery and does not tear apart through fear.
A vision of a generosity that brings our houses
of worship and military families together to help
homeless veterans and wounded troops, not a
smallness that makes excuses for the use of
torture that George Washington himself warned
us, is the wrong road for America to travel.
A vision that includes a role for the senior
statesmen and stateswomen from both
parties including Colin Powell and Jim
Baker, including Sam Nunn and Bob Dole,
including former Secretary of State Albright
and former Supreme Court Justice O'Connor
and others with global stature, wisdom and
crediblity.
A vision that restores the United States Senate
as an institution that respects great leaders from both parties; that
restores the United States House of Representatives as an institution
that is the people's house that values all of the people; that restores
our government in Washington as an enterprise that involves
two political parties and three branches of
government in a democratic system of checks,
balances, mutual respect and civic integrity, goodwill and crediblity.
Lets stop teaching our young to cheat, and
lets start inspiring our young to lead, to be
great, to view public service as an honorable
and noble and worthy field of endeavor.
Lets make a model of the young Americans
who serve bravely in combat, who serve
generously in the Peace Corps, who serve
their faith and their community from the soup
kitchens to the high school food drives.
Lets have leaders who inspire every young
person and every American and every friend
freedom who wants to look to America, once
again, as a beacon for the world.
Democratic Leaders should both challenge
and offer the President a good faith and
common sense path that can end the crisis
in Iraq, end the crisis of crediblity of our leaders
and end the acrimonious politics of disrespect,
and division, which are hurting our country,
our democracy, our security, our troops,
our communities and our crediblity around
the world.
The people are demanding change. The
Democrats are offering it and the big change
the people demand the most, is an end to
the acrimony and ugliness of Washington
and the beginning of a new era of reform
and national reconciliation.
If Democratic Leaders take this case to the
country, we will have a new morning in America
on the day after this election, and a moment of
opportunity to build a future that resembles the
greatness of our past, not the failures of our
present.