Shapiro wisely tells us that “The Last Great Senate” does not have to
mean final. If it is final, it saps our hope for improvement. He advises that we make “last” mean "most
recent" great Senate. This
made sense to me, as I aspire to be a person who works to stir and
shake things up. We have work to do to achieve greatness again.
That period had many lessons to teach. It modeled leadership that put the national interest before partisan
politics, in which the senators that cared about the Senate as an institution. They
knew how to create acceptable compromise, and they represented a Senate that reached decisions.
The senators that stood out for me were the majority and minority leaders,
Robert Byrd
(D-WV) and
Howard Baker (R–TN), who consistently
rose past narrow partisanship. Republicans included Javits, Lugar, Pearson,
Percy. Democrats included: Church, Eagleton, Jackson, Kennedy, Magnuson,
Mondale, Muskie, Nelson, Ribicoff. These Senators built on the earlier work of
Mansfield, Dirksen, and Humphrey .
I am proud that Politics & Prose, under
Brad Graham's and Lissa Muscatine's leadership, continues to provide P&P readers with a
rich array of books that help us do the necessary public work of engaged
citizens. As I am most familiar
with the rich literature on Congress written by many who have served as legislators, staff members, and
journalists, here are some of my favorites, including a few referenced
by Ira Shapiro. These
authors all
presented their books at P&P.
Lots to do; never enough time to
read. But The Last Great Senate and these other books give us
a way to start.
-
David Cohen
