Fire-Breathing Liberal: How I Learned to Survive (and Thrive) in the Contact Sport of Congress
By Robert Wexler
St Martin's Press
New York: June 2008
264 pages, $25.95
For a Congressman who's only served in the House for a decade and a half, Robert Wexler of Florida has performed quite the feat, managing to find himself at Ground Zero for not one, but two, of the most divisive issues in America's recent political history -- Bill Clinton's impeachment trial and the Florida 2000 recount. The former occurred during his first term, when he unexpectedly found himself as one of Clinton's most passionate on-air defenders. And in-depth involvement with the 2000 recount was foisted upon him by geography and history--the counties at the heart of the controversy were those he represented.
And as Fire-Breathing Liberal shows, Wexler managed to keep a level head and sense of humor throughout it all. His tales-from-the-trenches biography juggles his appealing mix of idealism and realism, explanation and anecdote, in just the right amount. What's delivered is an insider account of politics with an appealing, self-deprecating and entertaining twist. Consider Wexler's description of a portion of his childhood that many a political geek can identify with:
Norman and I would play a game titled Mr. President. Other kids were playing All-Star Baseball or Electric Football. We played Mr. President for hours at a time, five days a week. I grew up believing this was the most phenomenal game ever devised, which in many ways describes me. The object of the game was to win the presidential election. How many nine-year-olds knew that New York State had 43 electoral votes? Norman and I did. That fact might well sum up my childhood.
This kind of lovable, earnest dorkishness seems to be a Wexler trademark; indeed, it's part of what made Stephen Colbert's infamous set-up of Wexler, getting him to admit on-air to cocaine use and frequenting prostitutes, so terribly funny. He freely admits to being loud, passionate, intense and--lucky for us--a big, big fan of the netroots, the grassroots and our allies. His condemnation of the absurd deicison of Democrats voting to disavow the MoveOn Petraeus ad is refreshing and direct:
Many Democrats voted for the resolution [against MoveOn] to distance themselves from MoveOn and the substance of the newspaper advertisement. Just imagine the furor that would have resulted had we proposed a resolution to censure the right-wing Christian Coalition or Pat Robertson for one of their more outrageous proclamations, such as blaming 9/11 on homsexuals. I voted against the resolution, but unfortunately many of my colleagues did not, and it passed. It was not our proudest day.
As the title of this book indicates, Wexler joins the emerging grassroots in being unapologetic about liberals and liberalism, and given his outspokenness, it makes sense that as a first-term Congressman, he found himself the go-to man for media quotes in defense of President Clinton during the impeachment process. His common sense insistence that the private mistakes involved did not qualify as "high crimes and misdemeanors" seems obvious in retrospect, but at a time when many, many Democrats were scattering and harumphing, Wexler stood firm and found himself thrust into the limelight because so few voices in defense could be found. His own astonishment at his very public role shines through in Fire-Breathing Liberal; even years later, he's still preserved a "gee whiz" awe at his role and subsequent prominence. His accounts of conversations with President Clinton late at night are worth the price of the book. His singularly unimpressed and level-headed wife at one point answers the phone and tells the president her husband can't come to the phone because he's doing dishes.
These moments of ordinary/extraordinary are sprinkled throughout the work. Wexler takes the time to walk readers through his growing enchantment with foreign affairs, particularly fostering ties with Turkey, and how he believes the importance of internationalism affects us all deeply. Clearly, he's had practice explaining his interests to his constituents. His district is largely elderly, strongly Democratic and heavily Jewish. He details the condo meetings, Rotary Club banquets, school auditorium meetings--the nitty gritty of retail politics--with a fondness that seems difficult to feign. The feisty give-and-take between representative and the represented is warming to the populist-leaning heart.
Perhaps he earned his true stripes with his local base when he went to bat during the nightmare of the 2000 recount. Since Palm Beach County was home of the "butterfly ballot" debacle, Wexler ended up being the ad hoc coordinator of state, federal and judicial news and complaints, being a tireless, insistent advocate for every one of his residents' votes to be counted. Even at a distance of eight years, his anger over the election still bursts off the page:
Every politician learns how to lose as well as win--and as a Democrat I had a lot of practice losing. Through most of my career I'd tried to salvage what was possible, stand up for my constituents, and use the influence I had as a member of Congress in areas where partisanship played less of a role, such as foreign relations and constituent services, where I could do some good. But this Supreme Court ruling infuriated me. I was just outraged by it. Like many of my constituents, I feel it is a wound that will never completely heal.
What made both the Clinton impeachment and the unjust awarding of the presidency to Bush even more difficult for Wexler to swallow down the line was the refusal of the Democrats to consider investigations and impeachment against the current president as it became more and more apparent that serious constitutional (and criminal) violations were continuing to be perpetuated by the administration, unobstructed by the Democratic-majority Congress. As a result, Wexler's was one of the few voices continuing to assert the unpopular view that impeachment was not just a viable option, it was the only honorable one in light of the legacy we were possibly leaving open for Congressional hands-off precedents down the road:
Certainly there were legitimate arguments made against these proceedings. Many people reasoned that we'd been through this gut-wrenching process with President Clinton and it had ripped apart the nation. I responded by suggesting that the worst possible legacy of the Clinton impeachment would be to discourage future Congresses from examining valid allegations of constitutional violations against members of the executive branch. Should that happen, the tragedy of Clinton's impeachment would be compounded.
This really is a blast of a book to read; getting the behind-the-scenes lowdown on maneuvering legislation through committees, hitting the campaign trail vicariously with a gifted and passionate pol ... these are experiences political junkies should lap up in big doses. The writing is bright and lively, more conversational than professorial, and chapters are short and focused, easy to digest in small chunks or multiple sittings, since many can stand alone without a long narrative to follow. As you read, too, keep in mind that Wexler's name has been floated as a possible candidate to take on Mel Martinez for his Senate seat in 2010 (and a July poll showed him in a dead heat with the incumbent). Imagine what it would be like to have a U.S. senator from Florida proudly proclaiming;
If Republicans govern from the right and Democrats govern from the middle, when does the left get to govern? As a progressive, I fear my party has become more docile in the majority than we were in the minority.