The Congressional Journal of Barber B. Conable, Jr., 1968-1984

Barber B. Conable, Jr.—perhaps the most respected member of Congress of his era—kept a frank, insightful, revealing journal available now for the first time thanks to the efforts of editor Bill Kauffman in The Congressional Journal of Barber B. Conable, Jr., 1968–1984. The journal is an honest, searching, sometimes humorous, occasionally cutting, and always fascinating look inside Congress. Conable, a Republican member of the House from upstate New York, wrote perceptively about Presidents Nixon, Ford, H. W. Bush, and the leading congressional figures of the day. For seventeen years he wrote about the big events as well as daily political life in an era that included Vietnam, Watergate, political realignment, and major changes in entitlements and taxes, where he played a key role. Displaying his gift for clear expression and astute insight, Conable narrates the machinations of major tax measures, trade bills, and such special interests of his as public financing of congressional campaigns. While he is never shy about expressing personal judgments, he revels in the give and take of legislative politics. Conable had an acute sense of the human dynamics of legislating: In addition to the tax bills he shaped and struggled with as the leading Republican on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, his work with the 1982–1983 Social Security Commission, led by Alan Greenspan, is a classic exercise. Conable thought a deal was critical for the solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund but politically almost impossible given the differing priorities of the chief protagonists, President Reagan and House Speaker Tip O'Neill. In the journal Conable pronounces the effort doomed on January 13, 1983. Two days later he marvels at the political and personal dexterity and skill that ended up producing a deal. The journal illuminates Conable's intellect, his commitment to his constituents, and his appreciation of principled pragmatism; his writings are in real time, not rendered retrospectively to make himself look better, a rarity among political legacies. "Barber Conable was one of the most esteemed members of Congress of his era. Elected to the House of Representatives from a rural New York district in 1964, the Republican Conable served ten terms and was on multiple occasions voted the most respected member of the House in polls of staffers and reporters. Known for his integrity, Conable accepted no campaign contribution of greater than $50, even when he faced a strong Democratic challenger in the Watergate landslide year of 1974. As ranking minority member of the House Ways and Means Committee, Conable played a central role in the crafting of tax and trade policy, but he viewed his frank and thoughtful journal-never before published in any form-as one of his major achievements. The journal was a source for Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's The Final Days about the Watergate scandal, but Conable did not let them read the manuscript for themselves, "because I had so much other stuff in there that was sensitive in nature." The Conable journal comprises 16 volumes covering the years 1968-1984. Carefully edited by Bill Kauffman, this selection offers a uniquely honest and ruminative window into the world of Congress during an especially fraught period in American history, spanning the presidencies of Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan. Includes a foreword by Albert R. Hunt, who worked for the Wall Street Journal's Washington bureau for 35 years, who writes, "I've never spent time with a more thoughtful, and basically generous, politician.""-- Provided by publisher Barber B. Conable, Jr - perhaps the most respected member of Congress of his era - kept a frank, insightful, revealing journal available now for the first time. The journal is an honest, searching, sometimes humorous, occasionally cutting, and always fascinating look inside Congress.