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Let me say this upfront: I've always liked Phil Gramm, the politician. I know that may sound strange, coming from a journalist. And it certainly isn't the conventional wisdom among most Capitol Hill scribes, who generally regard Gramm as a Texas-size showboat, a conservative ideologue with a touch of mean-spiritedness. Gramm is a proud, unvarnished conservative, all right. But in two decades of covering his career, I found the 59-year-old senator who announced his retirement on Sept. 4 to be much more than that.
In the arena of politics, where polls are weather vanes and politicians too often value expediency over fidelity to core beliefs, Gramm was a principled conservative -- a true believer. Other pols believe only in winning, whether elections or legislative battles. Gramm believed in "the cause." And that cause was advancing the Reagan revolution -- less taxes, less government spending, less regulation, staring down communism.
PRESIDENTIAL ASPIRATIONS. He enlisted in 1980, while he was still a Democrat, and with ruthless determination pushed the Reagan agenda. His name is attached to the 1980s' landmark legislation -- from the Gramm-Latta budget cuts to the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings balanced-budget plan. One of the last Cold Warriors, Gramm used to warn rural Texans that "Ivan" was on the doorstep and that we needed to defend ourselves with military aircraft made in Texas. Whether you agreed with him or not, he made a cogent case for his point of view.
Phil Gramm wanted to be President -- more than anything in the world. I arrived at the Dallas Times Herald as a rookie reporter in 1978, the same year the Texas A&M University professor was first elected to Congress. Gramm quickly realized that he was too conservative to win the Democratic Presidential nomination. In 1980, I pulled the assignment of covering his first reelection race. Using all my reportorial wiles, I remember trying to get him to own up that he had voted for Jimmy Carter. He tippy-toed around my questions. I learned later why: He had voted for Ronald Reagan.
Gramm was the first Republican elected in the 6th District since Reconstruction
Taking the heat was Gramm's way. While other party-changing pols such as Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords simply announced their switch, Gramm took the bold step of resigning his House seat in 1983 so that the voters who had chosen him as a Democrat could decide whether they wanted him back as a Republican. For a politician, this was a courageous gamble. No Republican had been elected to represent the 6th District since Reconstruction days. But Gramm trounced a huge field of challengers, and it propelled him to the Senate a year later, following the retirement of Texan John Tower.
The 1984 Texas Senate race was a classic, the kind of battle political writers remember long after it's over. Gramm, the unreconstructed conservative, vs. Democrat Lloyd Doggett, a brainy liberal populist. The econ prof vs. the smartest student in the class. Doggett's chief political strategist was an obscure Cajun hired gun named James Carville. The contest featured a serious running debate over fundamental ideological issues. Gramm won in a landslide.
NOT HIS TURN. Ultimately, Gramm's White House ambitions were thwarted by the two biggest names in modern GOP politics: Bush and Dole. Gramm had assembled a top-flight team for the 1996 campaign, but his strategy was dashed when Bob Dole, then the Senate Majority Leader, decided to make a kamikaze run at Bill Clinton. Gramm had the money, but Dole won the 1996 GOP Presidential nomination with a message that most resonated with Republican stalwarts ("It's my turn"). Four years later, it was another Texan with the money and the message -- Lone Star State Governor George W. Bush.
Yes, Gramm was a publicity hound at times, claiming credit for other lawmakers' work. One Texas Democrat described the unpleasant experience as "grammstanding." And yes, his sharp tongue could pierce colleagues' egos. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) once angrily referred to him as "buster" during a Senate debate. He made a powerful pack of enemies -- often for good reason -- tops among them House Majority Leader and later Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.), who viewed Gramm as a turncoat and spy for the Reagan White House.
He talked about the impact of policy decisions on "my momma"
But there was much to admire in Gramm as a policymaker. While working in Washington, he always checked in with average folks back in his home state. His political weathervane was a guy named Dicky Flatt, a printer in the small town of Mexia. In Gramm's deep Georgia drawl (yes, he was a Georgian by birth but a Texan by choice), he would talk about the impact of policy decisions on "my momma." Yes, it was hokey. But it connected with Texas voters.
WRONG COMPANY. It's inevitable that pundits will compare Gramm to two veteran right-wingers who are also retiring, North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms and South Carolinian Strom Thurmond. They may have had similar voting records, but it's not fair to include Gramm in such company. The 98-year-old Thurmond, who hasn't been an active legislator for years, is long past his prime. And in my view, the Senate will be a better place without Helms, an old-style segregationist who used racial code and homophobia to retain his grip on power.
Gramm never stooped to racial demagoguery. He resisted the efforts of some Texas conservatives to demonize Mexican-Americans and use immigration as a wedge issue, like ex-California Governor Pete Wilson. He had one of the best records in the Senate for hiring and promoting women.
When he announced his retirement on Sept. 4, Gramm didn't repeat the common fiction that he wanted to spend more time with his family. He said simply that his work was done, that he had accomplished all that he had set out to do in Congress, and that he wanted to leave while he was still young enough to pursue one last career. It might well be in the private sector: After three decades on the public payroll, Gramm doesn't have a huge retirement nest egg.
Phil Gramm is one of the last real characters in the Senate. A conservative populist, he was one of its true intellects. He's proof that there's hope for a bald, homely looking guy in the modern era of blow-dried American politics. Even his enemies will have to concede that Capitol Hill will be a duller place without him.
Dunham is White House correspondent for BusinessWeek Edited by Douglas Harbrecht
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Copyright 2001 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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