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KLMNO Book World THE SENATE REVIEW BY BOB KERREY THE HOUSE REVIEW BY NORM ORNSTEIN
Obstacles to real change
O
ne of the great challenges of serving in the U.S. Senate is balancing the de- mands of the Capitol with those of your constituents. In 1994, during my
THE UPPER HOUSE A Journey Behind the Closed Doors of the U.S. Senate By Terence Samuel Palgrave. 255 pp. $26
campaign for reelection, my oldest son under- scored this point when he warned me, “Dad, if you say ‘with all due respect’ one more time, I’m going to vote against you!” His point was that while certain language can help you succeed in Washington, it can make you a failure at home. Terence Samuel’s “The Upper House” ex- plores the inner workings of the Senate through the lives of several current senators, including Majority Leader Harry Reid, Tennessee Repub- lican Bob Corkerand Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar. He describes the near impossibility senators face in fulfilling all the promises made during a campaign and explains why voters get frustrated when an election does not produce the immediate change for which they worked, voted and hoped. Samuel, who former- ly covered Congress for U.S. News and World Report, approaches his topic by way of the mid- term elections of 2006 and the presidential election of 2008. Both were decisive Demo- cratic victories. In 2006 Democrats won control of the House and the Senate, as well as a ma- jority of governorships and state legislatures. Post-election excite- ment and expectations were quite high. Nancy Pelosi had become the first female speaker of the House. No incum-
bent Democrat had lost a seat in the House or Senate. In 2008 the Democratic caucus in the Senate increased from 51 members to 60 as Al Franken was finally declared the winner in Min- nesota. Many opponents of the policies of President
George W. Bush expected the new Congress to effect dramatic changes. In particular, they hoped it would bring the war in Iraq to a rela- tively quick end. To explain why that did not happen, Samuel follows the course of two Iraq- related amendments to their eventual defeat — one that set withdrawal timetables and another that imposed deployment restrictions. The process of deliberation highlighted the difficulty of overcoming the combined barriers of Senate rules and partisan opposition. As the book de- velops, however, the author’s strong opposition to the war in Iraq becomes much too obvious. It gets in the way of the story he really wants to tell, which is about how the Senate works. At times the book reads like a long opinion piece, distracting us from what is otherwise a well-told account of the day-to-day work of the Senate. Samuel lets his personal politics overwhelm
his story in other areas, too. For example, of the Senate as it stood in 2007, he writes: “It was easy to understand the skepticism about Democratic motives. After all, too many of them voted for the war, and for the Bush tax cuts, and for No Child Left Behind, and for the flawed prescription drug benefit in Medicare — all of which struck the Democratic base as hideously expedient capitu- lations, the typical Democratic cave-ins. It was lucky that the next thing the president wanted to tackle was Social Security, or we might never have seen Democrats walking upright again.” This leads him to make what I consider his most wrong-headed assessment, in speaking of Democratic senators who are more conservative than he is. “This notion of having to play on Re- publican, or at least conservative, terms has been a hallmark of Democratic politics for much of the last thirty years, and it explains the difficulty they often have winning elections.” This reflects the cynical view that moderate to conservative Democrats are really liberals who are afraid to let their constituents find that out. Republican moderates are subjected to similar attacks from the opposite end of the political spectrum. This belief that moderation must be some kind of cop-out is what is driving Democratic voters to the left and Republican voters to the right. But the fact is that a growing number of voters are in the middle — moderate to liberal on social issues, conservative on the economy, strong on national defense and worried about the environment — and our political polarization leaves them feeling that neither party represents them. The rush for the extreme ends of the spec- trum also leaves a list of stubborn problems, caused by demographics or patterns of con- sumption and impossible to solve because the ideological pressure on Congress from both sides is too unforgiving. Compromise has become a dirty word. Suspicion has replaced trust, as can be seen in the author’s attitude toward Repub- licans with whom he so clearly disagrees: “Re- publicans during the Bush era had been only serving their ideology and their own narrow self- interest.”
Despite my reservations about the book, I
think “The Upper House” will help Americans understand how the Senate works — and why it often doesn’t. Its portraits of senators at work should spread the word that they are just peo- ple like all the rest of us. But the book’s greatest value may be in giving guidance to those who aspire to serve in what is still the world’s great- est deliberative body.
bookworld@washpost.com
Bob Kerrey is president of the New School in New York City and a former Democratic senator from Nebraska.
Consolidating her power
I
n the aftermath of congressional pas- sage of the health-care overhaul in March, ABC News anchor Diane Saw- yer asked Speaker Nancy Pelosi whether she is “the most powerful woman in American history.” Sawyer didn’t just make up the question in a moment of situational hyperbole; it was being asked or asserted by non-
partisan observers and publications such as the Economist, and it reflected not just the historic nature of the health-care bill and the controversy and contentiousness that framed it, but the striking image of a larger- than-life politician, the first female speaker of the House in American history. Few would dispute Pelosi’s pow- er, but her role and persona divide Americans. A heroine among hard- core Democrats, she is a figure of derision and distaste to partisan Re- publicans and a clear target for the unhappiness a whopping majority of Americans feel toward Wash- ington in general and Congress in particular. The resentment was on full display last week when she was jeered during a speech in Washington and had to yell over the protests of health-care activists. We can expect a wave of books about Pelosi; the first to emerge since her health- care triumph is not by jour- nalists, either of the tell-all or political- beat variety, but by two political scien- tists from the University of Oklahoma. Ronald Peters and Cindy Simon Rosen- thal are experts on congressional leader- ship and history; their book is thus more than a biography of Pelosi and more than an account of her tenure so far as speaker. Peters and Rosenthal try also to put Pelosi into the broader context of contemporary American politics and Congress. Pelosi’s power and fame (and no-
toriety) did not come solely because of her strong personality; her two
Norm Ornstein is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, writes a weekly column called Congress Inside Out for Roll Call and is the co-author of “The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back On Track.”
SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI And the New American Politics By Ronald M. Peters Jr. and Cindy Simon Rosenthal Oxford Univ. 320 pp. $29.95
Republican predecessors laid the groundwork for her path to extraordinary power and her po- larizing persona. Newt Gingrich’s short tenure as speaker redefined the office’s modern role, centralizing and enhancing power in a fashion not seen since Joe Cannon early in the 20th century, and helping to amplify the harsh parti- san and ideological conflict that dominates congressional politics. While Gingrich was a larger-than-life figure, regularly the subject of cover stories in newsmagazines, his successor Dennis Hastert could have walked down any street in any city — except K Street in Washington and Main Street in Aurora, Ill. — without being recog- nized. But Hastert went well be- yond Gingrich, creating high fire- walls in the House to deny Demo- crats any significant power while trying to create a parliamentary- style majority and squeezing out a major role for his party’s rank-and- file members. The upheavals in politics generat- ed by Gingrich’s ascendance to the speakership helped Pelosi to emerge as the Democratic leader. The times called for toughness, a partisan edge and relentlessness — all of which she had, along with a political savvy in- stilled from her childhood in a Balti- more political dynasty. These en- abled her to rise to the top to do com- bat with Gingrich, Tom DeLay, Hastert and the other tough, partisan and relentless Republicans. Her abili-
ty to organize and build relationships enabled her to win one of the most coveted House seats without any prior elective experience. In the House, she matched her staunch liberalism with her ability to bond with conservative Blue Dog Democrats, and sought out a seat on the Appro- priations Committee, where she could do favors for her colleagues and build support for moving up the leadership ladder. A pivotal moment came when she took on the role of Democratic point person on the House ethics committee to chal- lenge Gingrich directly on ethical issues. Peters and Rosenthal deftly describe that background and analyze Pelosi’s rise to power, noting her shortcomings while pointing out the qualities — her “penchant for organizational detail, interpersonal politics, and pragmatism” —that helped her both reach the top and keep a strong whip hand over a tumultuous and un- ruly House. The focus on Pelosi’s pragmatism will surprise those who think of her as staunch- ly ideological and rigidly partisan. But the au- thors emphasize that to attain a majority, she needed to recruit candidates to districts with views sharply divergent from her own (and then protect them from electoral assault); to win legislative victories, she has frequently had to subordinate her own views to find 218 votes. The authors devote a sizable amount of atten- tion to Pelosi’s gender. Their conclusion? She is different from her predecessors in her path to power, the opportunities available to her in her career, her voice and her style of leadership. But she has amassed and used power for political and policy ends in ways that clearly parallel those used by the most powerful speakers before her. “Speaker Nancy Pelosi” is not a breezy read; it has ample anecdotes that take a reader inside the personalities and intrigue in the House, but it also bolsters its points with data and political- science-y analysis. Unlike many scholars, how- ever, the authors write clearly and have a good feel for politics. Anybody who really wants to un- derstand who Pelosi is, how she attained this key post and parlayed it into extraordinary power and influence, and how she operates so suc- cessfully in a boiling caldron of partisan and ideological division will come away much better informed after reading this book.
bookworld@washpost.com MELINA MARA / THE WASHINGTON POST
SUNDAY, JUNE 13, 2010
MEMOIR
UNFINISHED BUSINESS One Man’s Extraordinary Year of Trying to Do the Right Things By Lee Kravitz. Bloomsbury. 209 pp. $25
Lee Kravitz was dealt a major set- back. A lifelong workaholic and perfec- tionist, he was fired as editor of Parade magazine. After going through a gamut of emo- tions — denial, anger, humiliation — Kravitz decided to transform his misfor- tune into an opportunity. Instead of looking for a job and possibly plunging back into a grueling work schedule, he vowed to spend one year tying up emo- tional loose ends, including repaying an old debt, making a long overdue condo- lence call and finding an estranged family member. This is the premise of “Unfinished Business,” which takes readers along on his journey to make amends, get clo- sure and answer gnawing questions. “The items on my list of unfinished business were linked to my deepest feelings of helplessness, disappoint- ment and fear,” Kravitz writes. “It’s iron-
ic: We consign our most essential busi- ness to the bottom of our to-do list be- cause we lack the time and energy to do the things that matter most in our lives well.”
Ultimately, by dealing with each item on his list, Kravitz came to a happier, more purposeful way of life, one less dominated by work and the fear of fail- ure, and more focused on family and small acts of kindness. There are hints of self-indulgence,
particularly in a section about forgiving a high school bully, which seemed to assign overblown significance to a pret- ty ordinary childhood woe. But general- ly Kravitz writes with an inspiring sincer- ity. His experiences are so familiar that it would be hard for readers not to re- flect on their own unfinished business —and want to tend to it.
—Sarah Halzack
halzacks@washpost.com
MEMOIR
IWAS BORN THIS WAY A Gay Preacher’s Journey Through Gospel Music, Disco Stardom, and a Ministry in Christ
By Archbishop Carl Bean with David Bitz. Simon & Schuster. 264 pp. $24
During the heyday of disco, it’s doubtful that every majestically coiffed, leisure-suited, tightly slacked gentleman dancing to Carl Bean’s 1977 hit “I Was Born This Way” recog- nized the song as an early homo-pos- itive nightclub anthem. Still, three decades later, the oft-remixed track still has the power to get people’s feet moving, if not ensure the legality of same-sex civil unions. “The song became an anthem of liberation for everyone,” Bean writes in his enter- taining, if thin, autobiography. “It was Holy Ghost power, prompting me, pushing me on.” Though Bean didn’t write the song,
its infectious hook — “I’m happy, I’m carefree and I’m gay” — synthesized the attitude he needed to overcome a brutal childhood marred by sex
abuse and a short-lived career as a gospel singer that devolved into wil- derness years of poverty and home- lessness. Eventually, this queer black boy from Baltimore reinvented himself as an AIDS activist and the founder of the Unity Fellowship of Christ Church. “While suffering, these people asked for my hand,” Bean writes of his AIDS ministry, one of the first to reach out to HIV-posi- tive minorities sidelined by their churches’ homophobia. “These en- counters showed me the transcen- dence of the divine.” The Village Peo- ple’s “YMCA” might get more airplay, but Bean doesn’t need a construc- tion worker outfit to build a moving narrative.
— Justin Moyer
moyerj@washpost.com
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