The Truth of Albert Briggs- Part 1

My freshman year in high school, I was already pretty committed to studying history.  But that year sealed the deal.  Not because ancient history was particularly captivating but because the attendant attention to current affairs was.  We were required to read "The News of the Week in Review" column in "The New York Times" every Sunday, and Monday's class focused on its content.  The key to these weekly discussions was the presence of the unusual Mr. Albert Briggs.

I didn't like Albert Briggs.  He was an avowed conservative, and I, like most of my classmates, a blossoming liberal.  I couldn't stand it when he would respond to one of my proudly declarative comments with, "Nooow Mr. Berkley..." followed by a gently withering observation.  I'm guessing that your ninth grade history class reading did not include "The Blue Book of the John Birch Society." Mine did.  To this day, I refuse to buy or use any Welch's food products.  The debates in that history class were intense.  No declaration went unchallenged.  Occasionally Mr. Briggs  made a comment that I thought was truly off limits.  Most importantly, and the inspiration for this entry, he said, "There is only one truth in politics, re-election."  I was mortified!  How coldly cynical.  How clearly incorrect.  This was the age of JFK.  The political world was a good and largely ethical place.

Mr. Briggs' comment was only a background noise in my consciousness until the 1990's, when I began to get more deeply involved with national politics.  I was the Chairman of the Upholstery Fabrics Committee of, first, the American Textile Manufacturers Institute, and then the National Textile Association.  I began to meet with members of Congress and the executive branch on a semi-regular basis to advocate for issues of interest to my group, which was composed of my competitors and others in the field.  I noticed that the offices of members of Congress and various executive branch officers were filled with people just like me and some paid to do advocacy for their causes (lobbyists, in the current vernacular, or even in the past vernacular).  We were all pressing our issues.  Setting aside the validity and/or importance of those issues, they all boiled down to money.  We wanted to preserve our companies and the jobs attached to them (our profits and future viability at the root of it all). Others had similar reasons for their advocacy.  I saw how the professional lobbyists exploited their long relationships with staffers to gain access and learned how sizable campaign contributions were the lubricant used to grease the wheels for that access.  The more exposure I had, the more I understood that the coin of the realm was, in fact, the coin of the realm.

As the 2000 election cycle approached, I began to contribute lots of cash to those candidates and organizations with whose positions I agreed.  The more I gave, the more I was invited to this dinner or that meeting with political figures.  I guess the highlight of that period was "Christmas Dinner at Terry McAuliffe's Home featuring President Bill Clinton" in December of 1999.  I flew to DC, checked in to a hotel room, and headed out.  "Dinner" consisted of 11 meatballs, 1 dish of onion dip with soggy Doritos some veggies with a spinach dip and some empty serving platters that somehow never got used.  Clearly this affair wasn't planned by anyone Jewish or Italian.  Bill Clinton was engaging and charismatic, as advertised.  We got a picture with him and some other pols, he worked the room for a little while and was gone, leaving us to fight over the last damn meatball.  Of the attendees, I was one of a small handful who were not lobbyists or fat cat donors, at least not yet.

Elaine and I went to the 2000 Democratic Convention in Los Angeles.  We were under the auspices of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC, call "the D-trip).  We stayed at a hotel that housed members of the House of Representatives.  We had a good time, but that there was a pecking order for access became very clear.  Our parties weren't the really nice ones.  Our seats at the Staples Arena weren't the prime ones.

I continued to contribute over the next four years, but I wasn't a John Kerry supporter.  I was a Howard Dean supporter.  During the campaign of 2004, the increasing role of big money became clear thanks to the Swift Boaters who simply fabricated stories about Kerry, were given enough money to get them on the air a lot, a media corps with the skill of a cabbage, and a Democratic Party that was taken completely by surprise.  After that election I decided it was time to step up to the Democratic National Committee.  I became a "member" of the DNC's National Advisory Board, i.e., I committed to giving the legal maximum to the DNC for four years.  I was now a fat cat.  I went to dinners four times a year at a truly magnificent townhouse in Georgetown.  I met movers and shakers including political leaders and had lots of face time with them.  I got to know Howard Dean, who turns out to be a bright, charming, funny and dedicated guy.  He even came to a dinner at our home with some friends who were potential donors.  It was he who gave me the most concise explanation of the difference between Republicans and Democrats.  Howard said, "The Republicans are the party of 'me', and the Democrats are the party of 'we'."

My candidate in 2008 was Bill Richardson.  After it became clear to me that Richardson wasn't going to win, although I had already maxed out to his campaign, I had to choose between Hillary Clinton, for whom I had, and have, the deepest respect and admiration, and Barack Obama, about who I knew nothing.  I flew to Washington with my boy child, what's his name, right, Dan, and we went to hear the candidates speak.  Hillary was called away because some whacko had taken her campaign office in New Hampshire hostage.  So I didn't hear her.  We did hear Barack Obama.  He was very impressive if a little too centrist for my political sensibilities.  I decided that rather than fighting a Swift Boat type of reliving of the events of the Clinton Presidency in the 1990's, I would support Obama.  I wrote the necessary check.

To be continued...