Senatorial Colloquy on American History and Politics
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Their experiences span the administrations of every President from John F. Kennedy through George W. Bush. They have drafted amendments to the Constitution, battled over Supreme Court nominations, expanded civil rights, debated wars, brokered peace. Collectively, they have served nearly 100 years in the United States Senate.
And this semester, these five renowned legislators – among the Senate’s most distinguished former and current members – will be at Washington College to share their reflections on politics, history, and the art of leadership with students, faculty, and the general public.
Senators from both sides of the aisle, including Gary Hart (D-Colo., 1975-87), Paul Laxalt(R-Nev., 1974-87), Dale Bumpers (D-Ark., 1975-99), and Richard Lugar (R-Ind., 1977-present) will participate in the 2007 Senatorial Colloquy on American History and Politics, led by former Senator Birch Bayh (D-Ind., 1963-81) and hosted by Washington College’s C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. In a series of four public conversations, on October 17, October 22, November 5, and November 12, Senator Bayh and his guests will discuss the history and traditions of the Senate, as well as their own experiences in office. The Senatorial Colloquy will offer exceptional insights into what it is like to belong to what has been called “the most exclusive club in the world.”
Amid the historic setting of 18th-century Chestertown, the Senatorial Colloquy also offers some of America’s leading lawmakers a chance to reflect on enduring challenges that confront the nation. The goal of the series is to rise above the ins and outs of current politics and consider how the Senate can, in these contentious times, live up to the ideals of Alexander Hamilton and James Madison – who, in The Federalist Papers, envisioned the Senate as embodying nothing less than “a sense of national character.”
Senator Bayh, who will participate with one visiting senator in each of the public conversations, is a senior fellow of the C.V. Starr Center at Washington College. Throughout a career spanning more than half a century, Senator Bayh won renown as a tireless and effective champion of civil rights and education, and as a highly respected authority on the U.S. Constitution. The only person since the 18th century to write more than one successful amendment to the Constitution, he has been called “a latter-day Founding Father,” as well as a master of the art of congressional leadership, often across party lines. Along with the 25th Amendment (establishing the rules for Presidential disability and Presidential and Vice-Presidential succession) and the 26th Amendment (lowering the voting age to 18), Senator Bayh drafted Title IX of the Higher Education Act (prohibiting gender discrimination on campus) and helped draft the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act.
The 2007 Senatorial Colloquy also includes a series of student seminars at which 16 Washington College undergraduates have opportunities to study American politics and history in a small-group setting with Senator Bayh, and to continue the discussion with each visiting senator over a private dinner after each of the Colloquy’s public sessions.
“Senator Bayh is not only a legendary figure in American public life, he is also an extraordinary teacher and mentor,” said Adam Goodheart, Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of the C.V. Starr Center. “Our students are fortunate indeed to learn about politics and history firsthand from someone who has literally made history. And the four guests whom he has invited to join him this semester are among the most thoughtful, eloquent, and farsighted members of the Senate in recent decades.”
All the public conversations begin at 5:00 p.m. in Hynson Lounge, Hodson Hall at Washington College. Admission to the Colloquy sessions is free and open to the public; admission will be on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information on attending, please call the C.V. Starr Center at 410/810-7161.
The four public conversations will be moderated by Steven Clemons of the New America Foundation, who is a member of the C.V. Starr Center’s Advisory Board and author of the popular political blog “The Washington Note” (http://www.thewashingtonnote.com). A keen observer of politics inside the Beltway, Clemons also writes frequently on foreign policy, defense, and economic policy.
Senator Gary Hart
Wednesday, October 17, 5:00 p.m.
Gary Hart, a leading intellectual figure in American political life, represented the State of Colorado in the United States Senate from 1975 to 1987. In 1984 and 1988, he was a candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President.
During Senator Hart’s 12 years in the Senate, he served on the Armed Services Committee, where he specialized in nuclear arms control and was an original founder of the military reform caucus. He also served on the Senate Environment Committee, Budget Committee, and Intelligence Oversight Committee. During his Senate years, he established a reputation as a political reformer, and played a leadership role in major environmental and conservation legislation, military reform initiatives, new initiatives to advance the information revolution and new directions in foreign policy. He is widely recognized as among the first to forecast the end of the Cold War.
Since retiring from public office, Senator Hart has been extensively involved in international law and business, as a strategic advisor to major U.S. corporations, and as a teacher, author and lecturer. He is currently Wirth Chair Professor at the University of Colorado and Distinguished Fellow at the New America Foundation. He co-chaired the U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st Century. The Commission performed the most comprehensive review of national security since 1947, predicted the terrorist attacks on America before 9/11, and proposed a sweeping overhaul of U.S. national security structures and policies for the post-Cold War new century and the age of terrorism.
Senator Hart is the author of more than a dozen books, including three novels (one co-authored with former Secretary of Defense William Cohen). In 2001, he earned a doctor of philosophy degree from Oxford University. His thesis, “Thomas Jefferson’s Ideal of the Republic in 21st Century America,” culminated a decade-long exploration of the idea of restoring the republican ideals of civic virtue and citizen duty. He also holds law and divinity degrees from Yale University and completed his undergraduate studies, with emphasis in theology and philosophy, at Southern Nazarene University.
Senator Paul Laxalt
Monday, October 22, 5:00 p.m.
During the course of his public service career, Paul Laxalt has been a Senator, Governor, Lieutenant Governor, District Attorney, presidential confidante, Republican Party leader and an internationally respected political figure.
He was elected to the United States Senate from the State of Nevada in 1974 and served until his retirement from public service in 1987. In the Senate, Laxalt served at various times as a member of the Judiciary, Appropriations, Finance, and Labor and Human Resources Committees. Early in his Senate career, he demonstrated his legislative abilities while fighting legislation designed to undermine states’ right-to-work laws, and in his tireless efforts to defeat the Panama Canal Treaties. In his second Senate term, he helped pass major anti-crime legislation, and played an instrumental role in the eventual rejection of the MX missile-basing scheme that would have encroached on large portions of Nevada and Utah.
By virtue of his friendship with Ronald Reagan, which began when they served as Governors of neighboring states, Senator Laxalt served as President Reagan’s “eyes and ears” on Capitol Hill and was often referred to as “The First Friend.” He was a three-time National Chairman of Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaigns (1976, 1980, and 1984). President Reagan appointed Senator Laxalt to the post of General Chairman of the National Republican Party in 1983, a position he held until 1987. At the behest of President Reagan, he traveled to the Philippines in 1986 to urge then-President Ferdinand Marcos to undertake political and military reforms. Senator Laxalt eventually convinced the Philippine leader to step down peacefully, thus helping to avert a bloody civil war. Today, he serves as President of the Paul Laxalt Group, a Washington, D.C. government consulting firm he has headed since 1990.
Senator Laxalt, the son of immigrants from the Basque region of France, was born in Reno, Nevada. He attended Santa Clara University and, following service in the Army during World War II, received his Bachelor of Arts and Law degrees from Denver University.
Senator Dale Bumpers
Monday, November 5, 5:00 p.m.
Dale Bumpers, who has been acclaimed as one of the Senate’s most eloquent orators in recent times, represented his native Arkansas for four terms, beginning in 1975. Before entering the United States Senate, he had served two terms as Governor of Arkansas. A Democrat, Senator Bumpers fought consistently for a balanced budget and for a sane and sound defense posture. One of his notable legacies is having voted 38 times against constitutional amendments or bills that would have led to a constitutional amendment. He calls our Constitution a “sacred document.”
Senator Bumpers chaired the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship from 1987 until 1995, and served as Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources from 1997 until his retirement. He and his wife, Betty, have long been national leaders in protecting the health of children by promoting childhood immunization. Their efforts helped America reach a record high level of immunizations. In 1991, Mrs. Bumpers and Rosalyn Carter developed a program called “Every Child by Two,” a program dedicated to immunizing every child fully by the age of two.
Senator Bumpers retired from the Senate on January 3, 1999. Less than three weeks later, he was called back to the Senate to deliver the closing argument in defense of his friend President Bill Clinton, in only the second presidential impeachment trial in the history of the country. “Mr. Bumpers summoned forth the dignity of an earlier form of public discussion, the kind prized by the Founding Fathers,” wrote one commentator in the New York Times. “He seemed to speak with the authority of a true heir to the nation’s highest traditions.”
Before entering politics, Senator Bumpers served in the U.S. Marine Corps for three years during World War II, and practiced law in his hometown of Charleston, Arkansas. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Arkansas, and received his law degree from Northwestern University.
Senator Richard Lugar
Monday, November 12, 5:00 p.m.
Dick Lugar, the longest serving U.S. Senator in Indiana history, is an unwavering advocate of U.S. leadership in the world, strong national security, free trade and economic growth. He is the Ranking Member of the Foreign Relations Committee and a member and former Chairman of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. He was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1976 and won a sixth term in 2006 with 87 percent of the vote. He was a candidate for the Republican nomination for President in 1996.
One of the Senate’s most respected voices on foreign policy, Senator Lugar, a Republican, has recently played a pivotal role in that body’s ongoing debate on the Iraq War. Throughout his career, he has been a leader in reducing the threat of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. In 1991, he forged a bipartisan partnership with then-Senate Armed Services Chairman, Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), to destroy these weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union. To date, the Nunn-Lugar program has deactivated more than 7,000 nuclear warheads that were once aimed at the United States.
Recognizing that energy security impacts every aspect of life in the United States, from the cars we drive and how much we pay at the gas pump to our vulnerability to foreign terrorism and our relationships with other countries, Senator Lugar has recently launched the Lugar Energy Initiative, a sweeping plan to address threats from energy dependence. As Chairman of the Agriculture Committee, he initiated a biofuels research program to help decrease U.S. dependency on foreign oil, and built bipartisan support for 1996 federal farm program reforms, ending 1930s-era federal production controls. He also led initiatives to streamline the U.S. Department of Agriculture, reform the food stamp program and preserve the federal school lunch program.
Senator Lugar graduated first in his class at Denison University and attended Pembroke College at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, studying politics, philosophy and economics. He manages his family’s 604-acre Marion County corn, soybean and tree farm. Before entering the Senate, he served as two-term Mayor of Indianapolis.
