Cabinet Secretary Makes Good
In Washington a few months ago, I ran into Dan Glickman. A long-time member of Congress from Kansas, Glickman was secretary of Agriculture under President Clinton. Then he moved to Boston to run the Institute of Politics at Harvard.
He said, "You're in from Seattle? How do you like that new Alaska Airlines nonstop from Sea-Tac into Reagan National?" This was indeed a thrilling development for all public-spirited citizens of Seattle. But why was Glickman so excited? "Do you come to Seattle a lot?" I asked. No, he hadn't been there for years. So? Well, it turns out that Glickman is one of those airline schedule romantics, always thumbing the timetables (or, now, surfing the travel sites) and imagining exotic connections. I thought, and still think, it's charming that someone who must have to travel so much in real life would devote valuable fantasy time to airplane trips.
But now that Glickman has been chosen to succeed the legendary Jack Valenti as head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America -- a.k.a. the Hollywood lobby -- travel may finally lose its glamour. Valenti used to bounce back and forth between the coasts multiple times a week.
The main reason I bring all this up, though, is to show off that I know Dan Glickman. It used to be that lobbying was a declasse, if not a downright furtive pursuit. Lobbyists might brag about their friendship with politicians -- or, in a few pathetic cases, even journalists. But nobody would brag about being friends with a lobbyist. Thanks in part to decades of cross-country civic education by Valenti, that's all changed. We now accept the vital role of the lobbyist in our constitutional system.
The press coverage of the selection of Valenti's successor was amazing -- in its quantity and page-one prominence, and in its sense of awe and drama that such profound responsibilities were about to descend upon one human being. You would have thought the job was running UNICEF, or a seat on the Supreme Court, not protecting one industry's interests in the political system.
The meaning of all this media coverage is clear. Glickman has been a congressman. He has been a member of the president's Cabinet. He has taught at Harvard. But now he's a really big deal. Putting it in the patois of Glickman's new constituents: He went out there a politician but he came back -- a lobbyist.
