Gallagher Says Goodbye: "Drink More, Tweet Less"

Many posts have discussed civility in Congress.

 The closing words of Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), just before his resignation took effect:

It’s typical at moments such as these to say ‘‘I have no regrets.’’ This is true legislatively and professionally. I accomplished my mission and got to chair the most significant committee in the 118th congress. Yet I have a lingering personal regret. I wish I had devoted more time to building personal relationships with my colleagues. Our time here is frenetic: filled with overlapping committee hearings and constant fundraising events. It’s hard to carve out time just to get to know your colleagues, to understand their background and motivation, and thereby develop trust. 

Where I was able to do that, with Senator ANGUS KING my co-chair on the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, and with RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI on the China committee, it produced the biggest legislative successes of my 8 years. Put differently, my effectiveness as Congressman wasn’t primarily a function of intellect or op-ed writing prowess and certainly not fundraising, it was a direct result of forging friendships across our caucus and maybe more importantly across the aisle. 

So if there’s a lesson in that for my successor or any of my colleagues it’s after a grueling day of a thousand meetings, still make the effort to get that beer with a member you don’t know that well. Drink more, tweet less. Get to know your colleagues in real life before trashing them on social media. At the end of the day, Republicans and Democrats, we’re all Americans, citizens of the greatest country in the history of the world. Even on our worst day the world is looking to us for leadership. God bless America. 

Tom Cole on Smoking and Politics

 At Politico, Ryan Lizza talks to Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), new chair of Appropriations and a cigar aficionado:

I’m a big believer in open humidors and open bars because they bring people together. I used to tell this to Boehner. I said, “Quit the cigarette stuff. That’s an addiction.” I mean, you’re sitting *makes sucking noises* for three minutes or something.

With a cigar, you’re going to sit down for 30 to 45 minutes, and if you’re doing it with somebody, you’re going to talk, you’re going to have a relationship. You’re going to find something in common with one another. It’s a lovely way to build a relationship and to socialize with people in a way that the cigarette generally isn’t. You never see a 15-year-old kid standing outside a building with a $20 premium cigar, sucking it up. They don’t do that. This is an adult product that leads to adult conversations and can quite often lead to some really interesting relationships and, frankly, good relationships between people that don’t often get along.

One of the worst things Pelosi ever did, and I know she did it for health reasons… You guys won’t like this, but…

I know where this is going.

… When you quit smoking in the Speaker’s Lobby and when you let in the press, you just destroy one of the places where bipartisan relationships are built. That’s how I got to know Barney Frank. That’s how I got to know Jesse Jackson Jr. when he was up here. Sit down, have a cigar, build a relationship. They were smoking cigarettes and in Frank’s case I don’t think he was ever a big cigar guy, but Jesse was.

There’s got to be some spaces where people can get together. We used to do this in the Rules office — one of the best smoking venues in the Capitol. But you’d get members from different generations there. I mean, Hal Rogers is there all the way to freshmen. There are different committees and most people live their life within their committee. I don’t know what the hell’s going on over in Ways and Means or Energy and Commerce until they produce a product and head it toward the floor. But it’s really interesting when you sit down and hear, “This is what we’re doing in Science, and this is what we’re doing in Ag. This is why we have ag crop insurance or whatever.”

If you’re not in those committees, you don’t know. Over a cigar people talk about their work. Even their questions are interesting. Their observations are interesting. It’s an enjoyable thing, but it’s also a great way to learn information, build relationships and frankly in some ways, educate people because most people learn politics by listening to stories. They’re not reading political science books for God’s sake. They talk to real politicians and they hear real stories and that’s interesting.