John Snow's comments to CFR on Feb 24, 2006

[kentuck]

It's interesting how he talk "our side" and the "other side"...I thought CFR was "bi-partisan"? With Pete Peterson as emcee and with questions from audience after Snow's speech.. I found it interesting.
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http://www.cfr.org/publication/8236/conversation_with_john_w_snow.html

<snip>
QUESTIONER: I’m John Brademas , New York University, third congressional district of Indiana. Mr. Secretary, I’ve enjoyed listening to you. You asked a question, “How do you do it?” “How do you do it,” people say to you. And I made these notes, I could have a longer list: enormous deficits after having inherited surpluses; Social Security privatization going nowhere; foreign aid minimal; and 45 years ago, I drafted a letter and got 45—and got 50 Democratic congressmen to sign a letter to President Eisenhower saying, “You’re Republican, we’re Democrat. We support your foreign aid proposal.” Almost no action on Darfur . The Pew poll says our country is in very bad order all over the world. The public opinion polls are down on the president, down on Congress. Republicans are in charge of the House, the Senate, the White House, the Supreme Court. How do you do it?

PETERSON: Well, John. Could I say something about it, John? From the tone of that question, John, I the rumor that you might have been a Democrat at some time is true, is that right?

QUESTIONER: That is true, but I will also say this, that I remember 40 years ago, as chairman of an education subcommittee wanting to hold hearings on legislation that produced the Education for all Handicapped Children Act, I turned to the senior Republican of the committee, Al Quie of Minnesota, for whom I had immense respect. I said, “Al, what witnesses do you want to hear?” I didn’t have to do that. We got up to the mark-up session; I said, “Al, what do you need here?” Result? We produced a unanimous bill, went to the floor of the House of Representatives, I said, “Mr. Speaker, managing the bill, I want to pay my respects to the gentleman of Minnesota and those on his side of the aisle for their contributions to this measure.” He threw flowers at me, and this was a signal to then-President Ford, “Don’t even think about vetoing this bill.”

Now, I was in Washington all day last week and talked to some of my former Republican colleagues and heard voices of great despair about the lack of civility; the lack of comity; the poisonous, bitter hostility between one party and the other. And as somebody who worked very closely—and I speak as the former majority whip of the House of Representatives—with my Republican colleagues to write a lot of legislation, I am deeply distressed about these developments and I hope that somebody of the stature of our distinguished speaker tonight will take some steps to reach across the aisle instead of treating Democrats as traitors of our country. I yield back the balance of my time.