David Broder remembers three heroes of his (just maybe not all that well)

In this 1964 photo from the Udall Archives, Interior Secretary Stewart Udall (1920-2010, left) and Arizona Rep. Mo Udall (1922-1998, right) are seen with their uncle Jesse Udall (1893-1980), a justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, as the boys' father, Levi Udall (1891-1960), had been. (Just for the record, current New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall is Stewart's son and Colorado Sen. Mark Udall is Mo's son.)

by Ken

Is it possible that David S. Broder isn't dead after all, but has just been enjoying a leisurely retirement these last 20 or 30 years since the famous Broder Monkeys took over the writing of his columns? Today's outing, remembering three longtime D.C.-insider friends who died recently, reminds us that he isn't a total idiot, or at least wasn't born that way.

When I was a young reporter in the 1960s, this city was full of people who did their jobs not only with skill and energy but also with unquestioned integrity. We didn't think much about it then, so commonplace was it, but when three of those people died almost simultaneously last month, I remembered how vital their example was.

He does seem right on the verge of saying, "Whereas nowadays this city is full of lazy, superficial, brain-locked blowhards like what I've turned into."

We've already talked about the first of the trio, Jerald terHorst, who resigned after 30 days as President Gerald Ford's press secretary in response to the pardon of Richard Nixon. The Broder Man adds a certain fuzzy warmth to the memory. "Back then," he says, "and for long years afterward, Jerry terHorst was one of my closest friends in Washington." We do learn that terHorst and their colleagues George Kentera and Richard Dudman were "dogged, devoted reporters," and it might have been nice to have an anecdote that illustrates this, rather than:

Four of us who worked for afternoon dailies in Detroit, St. Louis, Newark and Washington with Sunday editions got together with a crazy scheme. We wanted to do joint interviews with important newsmakers that would run in our Sunday papers and scoop "Meet the Press" and the other Sunday morning TV shows.

It never worked, and eventually we gave up the idea.

Well, okay . . .

The second departed friend is Texan reporter-turned-political aide Liz Carpenter, who went to work for Lyndon Johnson when he was nominated for the vice presidency in 1960 and continued working variously for Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson. In LBJ's White House, we learn, "Her smarts and irrepressible sense of humor survived the tumultuous years of his presidency." Again it might have been nice to have an anecdote illustrating those smarts and that sense of humor at work, perhaps instead of what seems to me a distinctly odd tribute:

She fought chauvinism in the Washington press corps and the wider world, and she treated aging with the same scorn she showed male jerks. In the last Carpenter speech I heard, she said she had just come across an envelope from the Alzheimer's Association and thought to herself, "I'm getting to the point I ought to send them something. So I opened the envelope and read, 'Thank you for your contribution.' "

Um, yes . . . er, say what?

Finally there's former Arizona Congressman and then Labor Secretary Stewart Udall. The Broder Man tells us that his younger brother Mo, who succeeded him in the Arizona House seat, 'is one of my all-time favorite politicians," and a lot of us -- even those of us who didn't know him -- think of Mo Udall as something of a hero. If the Broder Man has nothing more to say about what made Mo one of his favorite pols, well, it's big brother Stew he's writing about.

I don't think any of us is apt to quarrel with the idea that Stewart Udall, after "challenging the conservative Democratic establishment of Arizona to deliver the 1960 convention delegation to John F. Kennedy," "went on to become one of the best interior secretaries ever." Again, instead of another lame "last time I saw him" anecdote, something that gives us an inkling what made him a superior interior secretary might have been appropriate, rather than the incredibly lame "his achievements include national parks and public lands across the nation." I mean what about those "national parks and public lands across the nation"? Every interior secretary deals with them, after all, including the Republican secretaries who work so hard to shrink, exploit, and befoul them.

But what really shocks me is the characterization of Stewart Udall as "a precursor of today's 'Blue Dogs,'" apparently because he "made his reputation in the House of Representatives by standing up to huge pressure from the Teamsters and other unions and fighting for passage of labor legislation in the late 1950s." I assume what he means is anti-labor legislation (I guess in the walled Village of which the Broder Man has become one of the dribblingest elders, it's pretty much the same thing; it's pretty much inconceivable that respectable people might wish to support the interests of working people), but really now, is there anyone else who remembers Stew Udall as an anti-labor ConservaDem? (Hey, didn't we just have him "challenging the conservative Democratic establishment of Arizona"?)

Now if the Broder Man, by virtue of his friendship with the man, has actual knowledge that he regarded the Blue Dogs as anything other than a festering parasite on the body politic, he would be performing a service of sorts by sharing that with us. Because on the record, it's hard to think of any pol of the second half of the 20th century whose career stands in sharper opposition to everything the Blue Dogs stand for. I don't think I'm being overly touchy in suggesting that in the absence of supporting evidence, this "tribute" to his late friend is more like a slur, even a libel.

Hmm, I seem to recall that we set out to give the Broder Man his modest due for a column that for once wasn't the blithering of an inbred Village tribal chieftain. Something seems to have gone awry along the way. Maybe it had something to do with reading more carefully what he actually wrote?

#

History? Get me rewrite! Does it count for anything that bizwhores like Colorado's Bob "Man of Much Wind" Schaffer have developed a bit of shame?

We bring you another touching vignette from the impossibly overworked (election year, you know) DWT You Can't Make This Stuff Up Department.

Over at ProgressNowAction, Alan Franklin is asking whether Bob Schaffer, the Republican candidate for the Senate seat being vacated by Colorado superslug Wayne Allard "is lying on his bio again?" [Note: For a stirring note about our Wayne, one that's all but guaranteed to put a lump in your throat, or somewhere, see below.]

It seems that the bio of our Bob posted on the website of the employer he left on December 31 to make his Senate run, CHx Capital, LLC / Aspect Energy, LLC, has mysteriously changed. "A few months ago," Alan explains, "we took a routine screenshot of Senate candidate Bob Schaffer's biography web page at his former employer's site, Aspect Energy. Here's what it said."

Bob Schaffer

CHx Capital - Vice President Emeritus

Bob Schaffer is Vice President for business development at CHx Capital, LLC where he is involved with a variety of energy, mining and education projects. Additionally, Bob is actively involved in international business development activities for Aspect Energy, including sourcing and development of international oil and gas exploration opportunities for the Company. In 2007, Bob Schaffer provided notice to Aspect and CHx of his intention to run for the United States Senate. Bob Schaffer resigned his position with CHx Capital, LLC / Aspect Energy, LLC effective December 21, 2007. We wish him the best of luck and offer him our congratulations for his contributions to energy and wind development efforts.

"Sounds about right, doesn't it?" Alan says. "I mean he doesn't come right out and say 'he led Aspect's delegation to Iraq in search of oil development contracts,' but it doesn't seem at first glance like he's hiding anything. Unless you read the bio they replaced it with a few weeks ago:"

Bob Schaffer

CHx Capital - Vice-president Emeritus

Bob Schaffer previously acted as Vice-President for business development at CHx Capital, LLC. Bob was involved in a variety of wind power investments, international energy opportunities, and education projects. Bob worked to improve the US Wind Industry. Specifically, he worked to increase entrepreneurial opportunities for small business owners by ensuring that wind-specific tax credits could be utilized indirectly by wind developers classified as small business owners. Bob helped educate Congress about the benefits of wind power including its positive impact on the environment, job creation, and its importance to making the United States less dependent on foreign sources of oil. In 2007, Bob Schaffer provided notice to Aspect and CHx of his intention to run for the United States Senate. Bob Schaffer resigned his position with CHx Capital, LLC / Aspect Energy, LLC effective December 31, 2007. We wish him the best of luck and offer him our congratulations for his contributions to energy and wind development efforts.

Um, uh, say what? Our Bob is suddenly the wind-energy guy?

Here's Alan's take:

Amazing how quickly you can go from Aspect Energy's point man for "sourcing and development of international oil and gas exploration opportunities" to helping "educate Congress about the benefits of wind power including its positive impact on the environment, job creation, and its importance to making the United States less dependent on foreign sources of oil," don't you think? Were precautions against whiplash necessary?

From everything we hear, the Schaffer campaign appears to be a carnvial of banana peels, with the candidate slipping and sliding hopelessly. All the more reason to get behind the strong Democratic Senate candidate, Mark Udall.

(In case you have as much trouble as I do keeping track of all those Udalls, Colorado's Rep. Mark U is the son of the late 15-term Arizona Rep. Mo Udall, one of the most beloved figures in modern American politics. Mark's cousin Rep. Tom U, currently running for the New Mexico Senate seat being vacated--and not a moment too soon--by sad old Pete Domenici, is the son of another highly regarded public servant, Mo's older brother Stewart U, who served as secretary of the interior for the full eight years of the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.)


NOW FOR THAT WORD ABOUT WAYNE ALLARD, MAN OF PRINCIPLE

To call retiring Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard "undistinguished" would be an understatement, or maybe an overstatement, considering how little there is to talk about. But just today our Wayne sounded a sentimental note. Howie of course has kept us up to date on the rousing triumph today of the incorporation of Virginia Sen. Jim Webb's long-overdue revamping of the GI Bill -- providing benefits to U.S. military veterans which most Americans probably thought they were already getting -- into the Iraq military appropriations bill.

The final 75-22 tally makes it sound like the bill was a shoo-in, when it was anything but. As we all know, thanks to the Senate "leadership" of Doctorbill "I'm a Whore for For-Profit Healthcare" Frist and Mitch "Show Me the Money" McConnell, two of the lowest life forms to slither the planet, you now need 60 votes to do pretty much anything in the Senate, and while it was thought that the 60 votes would be there for the Webb initiative, that assumed no slippage among the Blue Dog Democrats or among the hardy band of Republicans trying their hand at, for once, not being Bush-regime rubber stamps--on a vote that would have had them voting squarely against "supporting our troops."

As Howie already reported, once it became clear that the 60 votes were there, something of a stampede took place, among senators who--all but after the fact--decided that it would be better to go on record as supporting rather than spitting on the troops. I'm not sure that we have a definitive rendering of which Republican "yea" votes were which, but in general the Republican votes for the Webb initiative fell into two groups: incumbents facing reelection in this dangerous-for-Republicans election year, and Republicans who are retiring.

About this latter group, our colleague Marcy Wheeler observed just as the vote tallies were being made known, that all the Republican retirees save one voted the sensible way, suggesting that impending retirement had had a salutary effect on the clarity of their moral judgment.

And the exception? You got it: Wayne Allard! Whatta guy! One who doesn't let his sense of rightness be affected by petty electoral considerations. Not our Wayne. As a pol, a useless void of a human being, not just when the klieg lights are shining on him, but who to the bitter end can look at our military veterans and the sacrifices they make for their country and say to them:

"Screw you!"

Yessir, meet Wayne Allard, Man of Principle.

#