As I noted earlier today, I had the pleasure of meeting Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) and hearing him speak today. Making the first stop on the promotional tour of his new book, Fire-Breathing Liberal: How I Learned to Survive (and Thrive) in the Contact Sport of Congress, Rep. Wexler once again showed why he, more than anyone else today, has earned the “fire-breathing” moniker.
This was the best-attended luncheon in the history of the Palm Beach County Democratic Professionals Council, with the attendance of some 300 easily outdistancing the number who saw Howard Dean speak to the group some time ago. Following the introduction of Rep. Wexler by Florida House District 83 candidate Bryan Miller, the entire audience rose to their feet to welcome the congressman, who undoubtedly is one of the few who would garner such a tribute before uttering a word (Bill Nelson received what I would term polite applause when he spoke to this same group last January).
After making his obligatory thank-you remarks, notably to Miller (who, said Rep. Wexler, “represents the future of the Democratic Party — we must send him to Tallahassee!) and to former Rep. Harry Johnston (D-Fla.), Wexler’s predecessor in Congress, the congressman’s legendary fire-breathing started. He recalled how, in his first five terms in Congress, he “languished in the minority,” but that since 2006, he has been “thrilled” that the Democrats hold a majority now in both houses of Congress, and he is “confident that Florida will lead the way to put a Democrat, Barack Obama, in the White House” this fall.
Rep. Wexler next referred to the “backwards leadership of George W. Bush in the White House and the likes of [former Texas GOP congressman] Tom DeLay in the House,” describing the Republican Party as “the party of fiscal irresponsibility” that has made us less, not more, safe as a nation. But, he declared, “those days are over. This is our moment to deliver real change!”
His book, said the congressman (signing a copy for me at left), explores the questions of what Democrats will and should do with their majority — presumably expanding in 2008 — in Congress and what we will do with the White House when Barack Obama takes the Oath of Office as the next president. Rep. Wexler explained that his goals for the book were twofold: first, take the reader inside Congress in a way that no sitting member ever had done before, thereby making “a mysterious Congress a little less mysterious;” and second, “advocating strenuously on behalf of a reinvigorated liberalism … in the grand tradition as a forward-thinking governing philosophy.” He quoted John F. Kennedy, who he said inspired the title of his book:
What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label “liberal?” If by a “liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “liberal,” then I’m proud to say I’m a “liberal.”
“I am not talking about a timid liberalism [that operates on the] fear of failure,” Rep. Wexler declared. He said he has been frustrated by the moderation of his Democratic colleagues and by their failure to address GOP attacks head-on, especially on wedge issues. “Bush campaigned as a compassionate conservative,” said the congressman, “but he governs like Newt Gingrich on steroids.” “We must settle for nothing less than passing universal health care during the first two years” of Obama’s presidency, Rep. Wexler declared, adding that Congress also must address global warming during that time.
The congressman went on to describe a couple of vignettes from his book. The first involved his participation in the joint congressional hearings on Iraq and specifically Gen. David Petraeus’ testimony.
I listened quietly as one after another of the most senior members of Congress questioned Petraeus. And I was astonished that my Democratic colleagues were downright deferential and nonconfrontational. A tragic war was raging in Iraq and we were playing patty-cake with the general. I began thinking, Oh no, we’re not going to be duped again. We’re not going to be lackeys for this administration and for generals who don’t speak the truth until they leave the service. But apparently we were.
Ironically, the people who were treated most harshly in that room were members of the feminist antiwar group named Code Pink. Twice while General Petraeus was speaking these women interrupted loudly and were forcibly removed from the room — the guards pulled them out. The Democratic leadership, rather than respecting their civil disobedience to protest this war, instead threatened to prosecute them. Please. I understand that we cannot allow congressional hearings to be disrupted by antics from the audience, but it would be nice if we could muster as much anger toward those responsible for perpetrating the failed strategy in Iraq as we do toward the Code Pink ladies!
While listening to both Democrats and Republicans make statements and question the general, I started writing down some thoughts. In the middle of the hearing, my office passed me a message from a high-ranking Democratic leader. My first thought was, Okay, finally someone wants me to ask Petraeus a hard-hitting question. This hearing was being televised. I happened to be sitting in the middle of the panel, directly below the most senior people on the committees, so each time they were on camera I was visible. In the middle of this vitally important hearing the message was clear: “Tell Robert to stop chewing gum. He’s on camera. It doesn’t look respectful.”
At first I thought perhaps that was a joke. As I’d told several people, during the Clinton impeachment hearings my mother had complained about the fact that I was chewing gum on camera. Maybe this was a reaction to that. It wasn’t. Our leadership wanted me to stop chewing gum. I took the gum out of my mouth.
Later, as Rep. Wexler described it, he did have a chance to question Gen. Petraeus, and he did so forcefully and directly. Yet, he explained, “[t]he right-wing propaganda machine roared into action.”
“You have to understand Wexler’s constituency to understand this,” [Rush] Limbaugh said. “They are deranged … You Democrats down there are absolutely delusional, devoid of any rationality or reason.” And then he went on to add, “I’ll bet it was everything Petraeus could do not to reach across the table and start strangling this little guy. I’ll just bet you. He’s sitting there, Wexler, making it sound like nobody cares these three thousand seven hundred deaths matter. He’s telling that to a four-star general in a dress uniform! … Folks, this is not far off from the rest of the kook, liberal population throughout this country.”
Imagine that, a congressman having the audacity to challenge “a four-star general in a dress uniform!”
After evoking the title of that particular chapter of his book by saying, “Now is the time for a liberal surge,” Rep. Wexler lightened the mood considerably by recalling his famous appearance on The Colbert Report (says Colbert on the book’s dust jacket, “I enjoyed Congressman Wexler’s book even more than I enjoy cocaine and prostitutes”) and telling a story from his first political campaign, for the Palm Beach County Commission, when he and his father, driving to an appearance in a car festooned with Wexler campaign paraphernalia, accidentally struck and killed a dog. “If that’s not the worst thing that can happen to a politician, I don’t know what is!,” he exclaimed.
Rep. Wexler wrapped up his remarks with one last anecdote about why he is so notorious for shouting when he speaks. Without repeating the entire story, the gist of it is that an early, elderly supporter once said she would vote for him “because he’s the only one I can hear!”
The congressman took two questions from the audience. First, a woman asked why Sen. Obama “caved” on the recent FISA “compromise” vote. Rep. Wexler replied that, although he believed the Senate has not yet voted and although he himself voted against the compromise bill in the House, he respectfully disagreed with the senator’s position but understood that there must be a reasonable compromise between national security and civil liberties. “Sen. Obama opposes the [retroactive] immunity provisions” for telecommunications companies, said Rep. Wexler, “but he believes the bill is a fair compromise on presidential power.” This demonstrates the absolute urgency of electing Barack Obama president, the congressman added, concluding that Obama “has the right perspective on securing the American homeland.”
The second question came from a man who asked, “When are you going to take the gloves off and challenge McCain when he says that we’ll bring our soldiers home when we win? How do you know when we win?” Rep. Wexler agreed with the questioner’s point that Iraq has devolved into civil war and there really is no way to “win.” “The only victor in Iraq is the country of Iran,” Rep. Wexler noted, “and John McCain has been wrong on every national security measure in the last few years,” including Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran, with which he stubbornly refuses to engage in diplomacy.
Rep. Wexler was indeed breathing fire today, but he cordially stayed after the luncheon (I’m not sure he ever even had a chance to eat) and signed his book for about a hundred or so who stuck around for that opportunity (his autograph for me is shown at right). He’s not only a great advocate for south Florida in Congress, he’s a great Democrat, period, and he continues to be a force for positive change in Washington. Let’s hope that continues …
All book quotes from: Wexler, R., with Fisher, D. (2008). Fire-breathing liberal: How I learned to survive (and thrive) in the contact sport of Congress. New York: Thomas Dunne Books.
Blast Off! in exile 