Fifty Years in Washington, D.C.

I have always been a marker of milestones, so even though Nancy and I are finishing a wonderful trip in Australia, I couldn’t help but recall that fifty years ago —October 20, 1975--- I began working in the Senate for Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. I don’t exactly think of myself as old, but Chuck Grassley is 92, and has served in the Senate forty-five years, and I got there five years before him.

In upcoming posts, I plan to reflect on some of the most important changes in our politics over the past half century. I believe that anyone who writes about politics and government has an obligation to try and answer the plaintive question posed by journalists Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele in the title of their 1991 book, America: What Went Wrong? And of course, it is necessary to address the inevitable next question: what should be done to reverse the downward spiral? But for today, I wanted to recall Gaylord who gave me the opportunity to serve as his legislative legal counsel although I had never spent an hour in Wisconsin and had no political connections helping my effort to find a job in the Senate.

As much as anyone, Gaylord Nelson epitomized “the last great Senate” that I chronicled in my 2012 book. He was one of the distinguished veterans of Word War II who returned home proud of America’s triumph but also determined to go into public life to address the country’s challenges in the post-war era. Like many of his Democratic and Republican counterparts, Nelson believed passionately in the potential and capacity of government---state and federal---to advance our common interests. Gaylord, who grew up in Clear Lake, Wisconsin, translated his love of the outdoors into a lifetime commitment to protecting the environment. Most commentators cite Rachel Carson’s brilliant 1962 book, Silent Spring, as the beginning of environmental consciousness in America. Nelson was elected to the Senate that year, but he had already served four years as Wisconsin’s governor, in which he successfully spearheaded landmark conservation measures that became the benchmark for other states.

In his first year in the Senate, Nelson convinced his friend, President John F. Kennedy, to undertake a national conservation tour to focus public attention on the need to protect our environment. Kennedy did the tour, but he really wasn’t committed to the issue. Disappointed by the outcome of the trip, Nelson mulled over ways to elevate national consciousness about the environment. Eventually, he came up with the idea of a national teach-in: April 22, 1970, known as Earth Day. Always the visionary, he called for the abolition of the internal combustion engine that year.

Although protecting the environment---in America and globally---was his lifelong passion, Nelson was also one of the earliest Senate opponents to the Vietnam War. He wrote legislation to ensure that Congress could exercise some control over foreign arms sales. In the aftermath of Watergate, Nelson was the author of the legislation seizing Richard Nixon’s presidential tapes and papers, establishing the principle, later enshrined in law, that presidential tapes and papers were the property of the United States government, not the presidents. And when the Senate, prodded by Jimmy Carter who rode public anger over Watergate to the White House, committed to adopting a code of ethics, Senate Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd tapped Nelson to chair a special committee to write the code. Byrd believed that only Nelson, probably the best liked member of the Senate, could deliver the restrictions on outside income from speeches that the senators loved to give. This was my first major assignment in Washington; Nelson made me staff director and chief counsel for the special committee, at the age of 29.

Nelson came to the Senate as part of the liberal tide carried by JFK’s New Frontier. His “class of 1962” included Abraham Ribicoff, George McGovern, Daniel Inouye, Birch Bayh, Tom McIntyre, and a thirty-year-old who went on to be one of the greatest senators ever: Ted Kennedy. They enlarged an already significant Democratic majority and became key players in an eighteen-year run of progressive legislative accomplishments unmatched in Senate history. Along with many of their Republican colleagues, they fought for civil rights, opposed the Vietnam War, held Richard Nixon accountable for Watergate, and enacted landmark clean air and water legislation.

The liberal tide ran out in the late 1970’s, and Ronald Reagan’s landslide election in 1980 swept in thirteen new Republican senators. Nelson lost his bid for a fourth term narrowly to Robert Kasten; their race was the closest and the last to be called that election night. Characteristically, he showed no bitterness or excessive regret. Never interested in cashing in on his Senate career, in a short time, he found the perfect job, becoming chairman of the Wilderness Society, where he devoted his intellect, energy, and stature to protecting the environment and educating the public about climate change for nearly a quarter century more.

In my fifty years in Washington, I’ve known the greats, the near greats, the un-greats, and the ingrates. Gaylord Nelson, with his keen intellect, unmatched sense of humor, and an unflagging commitment to the public good, was one of the greats.