The Howard Baker Center is on a campaign to increase civility in government. Howard Baker, former Senate majority leader, White House chief of staff, and ambassador to Japan, is the poster child for that. And a true believer. “Politics is an honorable profession,” he always has said.
Tuesday the Baker Center hosted a luncheon at the Foundry, and Baker himself introduced the speaker, Patrick Butler, former vice president of the Washington Post and Baker staffer. Butler said two situations exemplify Baker’s status as a statesman: The Watergate hearings in 1973 and the Social Security compromise in 1983. In both of these instances, Baker worked with members of the opposite political party to forge a solution even though it meant angering some members of his own party. In the process, Butler said, Baker became a “national matinee idol” during Watergate and “gained the respect of people from every political spectrum.” Butler said he doubted it would be possible for the same thing to happen today.
Other lunch highlights:
- Butler said that both he and Lamar Alexander are former speech writers for Baker. He said they both became very frustrated with Baker because when he delivered his speeches, he would rarely follow the remarks they had prepared. Finally they confronted him. After listening to them for a few minutes, Baker proposed an idea: “You keep writing what you want to write and I’ll keep saying what I want to say and it will be just fine.”
- When an audience member suggested that perhaps the media were to blame for the lack of civility in politics today, Butler said, “You’d be amazed at the number of stories we don’t run.” He said the Washington Post knew some “very embarrassing information” about some potential 2008 presidential candidates but opted not to use it when the candidates seemed not to be viable contenders.
- “We expect the worst from our political leaders — and we get it,” Butler said.
Here are some who were there: John Petersen, Ellen Thornton, Mike Magill, Susan Williams, Tom Jenson, Fred Marcum, Joe Walsh, Lillian Mashburn, Amy Gibson, John and Carol Sheridan, Mark Harmon, Ranee Randby, Mark Jones, Mark Miller, Stephanie Welch, Susanne Dupes, Jim and Flo Ullrich, Hubert Smith, Bill Dockery and Bob Shelton.
