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The Resurrection of Bob Strauss
By Timothy Noah
Posted Thursday, Dec. 28, 2000, at 3:21 p.m. PT


Perhaps the most painful consequence of George W. Bush's presidential
victory (or whatever you want to call it) is the prospect that people
will start calling Robert Strauss "Mr. Democrat" again. Strauss is a
Texas-born Washington influence peddler who, on the strength of
serving in 1972 as chairman of the Democratic Party and later as
Jimmy Carter's U.S. trade representative and the head of Carter's
unsuccessful re-election campaign, acquired the sobriquet, "Mr.
Democrat." For the last two decades, Strauss peddled his "Mr.
Democrat" image mainly to Republicans and his corporate clients, who
flattered themselves that in doing business with Bob Strauss, they
were reaching across some sort of ideological chasm. The Washington
press corps, taken in by Strauss' artful leaking and relentless
flattery, played along. Writing in the New York Times in December
1987 ("Out of Texas, the Capital's Leading Wise Man"), Steve Roberts
observed:

He has become a senior statesman who bridges partisan rivalry and
ideological factionalism. The capital needs such elders, people known
for their straight talk and sound advice, and every generation seems
to produce a few. ... His real influence in Washington derives not
from his past titles, but from the force of his personality and the
quality of his judgment. ... Asked to describe himself, Mr. Strauss
says simply, "I'm terribly partisan, but I think people trust me."
In truth, as Slate Editor Michael Kinsley observed the following year
(in one of the columns collected in his book Big Babies), the notion
of Strauss as an elder statesman beloved by the Democratic party was
always something akin to an elaborate prank played by Washingtonians
on the rest of the world. Strauss was really a Washington fixer, a
sort of Manucher Ghorbanifar on the Potomac, the only real difference
being that "no one calls [the Iran-contra intermediary] 'Mr.
Shiite.' "

After 1992, Strauss wasn't heard from much; the absence of a
Republican administration meant there was little need for a
conservative Democrat to hang around the White House and lend an aura
of bipartisanship.

As a rainmaker, Strauss was eclipsed at his firm, Akin, Gump,
Strauss, Hauer, & Feld, by Bill Clinton's golfing buddy, Vernon
Jordan. A Nexis search reveals that Strauss got described in print
as "Mr. Democrat" only 12 times in the eight years after Bill Clinton
was elected president (and four of these citations were clearly
ironic or derogatory). During the previous five years--that is,
during the Bush administration and the tail end of the Reagan
administration--Strauss got described in print as "Mr. Democrat" 30
times.

Now that Republicans are about to retake the White House, though,
Strauss is back. In the current Washingtonian, Chuck Conconi
writes, "Strauss is ready to help fellow Texan George W. Bush find a
way to work with Democrats." Although "Strauss says he never talks
about whom he talks to," somehow Conconi was able to intuit that
Strauss "has been in contact with Bush and other people who will try
to act as conciliators and facilitators in the coming months,
including Sens. John Breaux, and Richard Lugar and former Sens.
Howard Baker, John Danforth, and Sam Nunn." In the Dec. 14 Daily
News, Washington bureau chief Thomas M. DeFrank described Strauss as
a "Democratic Party elder and certified Washington wise man" as he
quoted Strauss saying, "Nobody can govern without a consensus, and
you don't have one." (Translation: Dubya, you need me!) That same
day, in the Dallas Morning News, reporter David Jackson called
Strauss an "elder statesman" as he quoted Strauss saying, "The public
has handled itself better than the participants, whether they be
participants in the media or the political arena. ... Now we need to
follow their example." (Translation: Dubya, you need me!)

It might be argued that Strauss, who is now an octogenarian, may not
feel up to reassuming the mantle of "Mr. Democrat." But the job of
insinuating yourself into the power structure was probably never all
that strenuous. As long as he can show up for lunch at the Palm,
Strauss should be counted in.