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Q U I T   W H I N I N G !

Washington will always be nasty and brutish --
until its victims fight back.

as anyone who knows me will tell you, I am not afraid to cry. Hell, I can be a blubbering mess when something goes terribly wrong -- or wonderfully right -- either in my family or in a tight political race. But there is one emotional response I simply cannot stomach: whining. I don't do it, and I don't tolerate it -- not from my little daughter, not from my long-suffering assistants, not from bone-tired campaign workers, not from prima donna candidates.
Last week, all the whining in Washington over the Senate's confirmation process and what happened with Tony Lake sounded to my ears like fingernails on a blackboard. Let me be clear: I've got nothing against the man the president chose to run the CIA. Quite the contrary. I think Tony is a brilliant and honorable man -- and the right man for the job. But I didn't like the way he pulled out. Maybe it was the right thing for him to do for himself and his family, but his surrender sends a real bad signal to this city and this nation.
No question about it: The Senate confirmation process is, as Tony said in his note to the president, "nasty and brutish." It's no coincidence that the term senator came from the Romans: Confirmation hearings and other investigations in Congress look a hell of a lot like the lion spectacles in the Roman Colosseum. Once a pack of senators decide they've got weak prey, they slash away one at a time for as long as it takes to make their kill. The last place they ought to show these so-called hearings is on C-SPAN. One of those Discovery Channel animal shows would be better.
I don't know whether Tony had any real chance of getting through the confirmation process with life and limb intact. Perhaps not. But this I do know: Every time a good nominee like Tony pulls out, the lions in the Senate feel all the more hungry. They start sharpening their claws in eager anticipation of the next victim.
No matter how long the odds may be, we need to have good nominees take on these predators. Instead of whining, we need to help them. We need for them to win. That's the only way anything is going to change in our increasingly bloodthirsty Congress.
After watching Tony's hearings, I can't help but think we made a terrible mistake by not fighting harder to see Henry Foster confirmed as surgeon general in 1995. He would have been perfect as the nation's top doctor. The focus of his illustrious career, cutting down on teen pregnancy, was exactly the right health issue for the nation to focus on. But the radical right-wingers in the Senate saw an opportunity to savage him over the issue of how many abortions had been performed at his hospital. Here was a guy who had done more to reduce teen pregnancy than every member of Congress combined, and we let the Senate rip him to shreds. That was a big-time miscalculation. Tony Lake is suffering the consequences now.
Under the best of circumstances, surviving in this city when you're in the public eye is no easy feat. A Senate confirmation hearing is just one of the ways of sending someone packing in disgrace. You can get crucified in the press. You can get ostracized socially. You can run afoul of the Washington establishment and get yourself a peck of problems.
I've been in Washington long enough to figure out what it takes to survive with your dignity intact. It's pretty simple, really. First, you've gotta give as good as you get. Understand that the trials are tough and that you've simply got to be tougher.
Second, you can take your causes as seriously as you want, but you cannot take yourself too seriously. You've got to be willing to let yourself be laughed at. You cannot get your back up every time someone calls you a nasty name in public -- even if it's your own wife.
Third, recognize that the public has become cynical about the ways the powerful like to tear down the weak. Use that to your advantage. As long as you don't whine, do not hesitate to call into question the motives of your attackers. You might not get away with this when you're in the hot seat during a confirmation hearing. But it works just about everywhere else. It's about time we pulled out all the stops.
March 24, 1997
Did Tony Lake wimp out? Should he have fought back against the Senate bullies? Share your opinion in Table Talk.