Jim Leach: Not today’s Republican

While Jim Leach no longer considered himself a Republican in recent years, most of his career was as GOP member and an exemplary one at that. He didn’t always vote as I would have liked in his 30 years in Congress, but he was smart, broadly educated, caring, and certainly not ever a knee-jerk conservative.

He earned degrees from two prestigious universities, gave special attention to the old Soviet Union and, usefully, was a college wrestler as well.

He also served as Barack Obama’s head of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was quite a package of civic and intellectual excellence. He was a public servant in the fullest meaning of the words.

He didn’t pout or seek to get even when defeated, but came home to the university, inspiring a new generation of Iowans to care as he did about the quality of life for all of us.

Leach and his wife, Deba, were an inspiring part of the intellectual community, generous with their time and money, as well as fine art they had collected

By the time Barack Obama ran for president, the caring spirit had shriveled in Leach’s party, and he was driven by conscience to leave it. It could not have been easy, but ultimately Donald Trump made it imperative for a man of Leach’s character.

It's a secular sin to even mention both in the same sentence. They could not have been more different in personal behavior, interests, purpose and a vision of tomorrow. One saw public service as an opportunity to create what we all benefited from: our abundance and democratic dreams. The other thinks only of himself. One saw our society as an opportunity to do good; the other sees people to get even with for personal slights, many imagined and just made up.

If he could get his face on the dollar bill it would be the day after he is inaugurated.

With Jim Leach’s death, we all have lost something special. It is not hyperbole to say Leach was a good man who worked at doing great things. He brought honor to his party, to this state.

Nowhere is that more immediate and clearer than this moment as Donald Trump fills his cabinet. Over my working political years in Washington, I met members of a president’s Cabinet, and have known a couple very well. Even those I didn’t applaud shared special knowledge, and often administrative experience, and always an interest in their agencies and departments they oversaw.

The Cabinet is not the exclusive domain of saints. Some are flawed. I’m sure that a few drank too much, messed round compulsively, but it is a rare one who didn’t bring knowledge, useful experience to the job.

I’ve watched the selection process from afar, but also nearby. Senators are not casual in saying no. It has happened only several dozen times in our history, and only one president has had four or more nominees rejected. Donald Trump had four the first time around and is certainly likely to have more than just Matt Gaetz this time. Robert Kennedy Jr. and Pete Hegseth should certainly be rejected.

I’ll have more to say about them.

Norman Sherman of Coralville has worked extensively in politics, including as Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s press secretary.