Showing 81 - 90 of 434 Items
Date: 2009-12-07
Creator: Jason S Grumet
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Jason S. Grumet was born February 25, 1967, in Rochester, New York, to Gerald and Madeleine Grumet. After high school, he spent a year traveling North America through a program with the National Audubon Society Expedition Institute. He received an environmental studies degree from Brown University and then worked for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. He attended Harvard Law School and ran an organization that worked for the Northeast State Air Pollution Control officials. At the time of this interview, he was president of the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: Mitchell and the Clean Air Act of 1990; Mitchell and the National Commission on Energy Policy; the Clinton Global Initiative; purpose of the National Commission on Energy Policy; bipartisanship; how Senators Mitchell, Daschle, Dole, and Baker interacted on the bipartisan health care commission; how the challenges with Clinton health care influenced the commission; reaction to the report from the commission; Chris Jennings and Mark McClellan; working with the law firms of former senators; lack of bipartisan energy on health care; the Obama administration’s role; how the projects are organized; Senator Mitchell and bipartisan leadership; and Mitchell’s legacy.
Date: 2009-04-13
Creator: William 'Bill' E Frenzel
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
William E. “Bill” Frenzel was born July 31, 1928, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He attended Saint Paul Academy and received a B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1950 and an M.A. in 1951. He served as a lieutenant in the Navy from 1951 to 1954 during the Korean War. He served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1962 to 1970, when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota’s Third District. He held that office from 1971 until he retired in 1991; he served on the House Budget Committee and the Ways and Means Committee during his tenure. He also served as a Congressional Representative to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) for fifteen years. Since retiring from the House, Frenzel was president of the Ripon Society until 2004, a guest scholar of the Brookings Institute and, in 1997, was named director of the Brookings Governmental Affairs Institute. In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed him to the bipartisan President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security and, in 2002, to chair the Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations. He currently chairs the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, is the vice chairman of the Eurasia Foundation, chairman of the Japan-America Society, chairman of the U.S. Steering Committee of the Transatlantic Policy Network, co-chairman of the Center for Strategic Tax Reform, co-chairman of the Bretton Woods Committee, co-chairman of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, chairman of the Executive Committee of the International Tax and Investment Center, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Committee on U.S.-China Relations.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: first impressions of Senator Mitchell; the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 negotiations, major players, and Mitchell’s role and its eventual passage; the reasoning behind going to Andrews Air Force Base budget summit; spending caps and PAYGO; “read my lips” and the 1992 presidential campaign; Mitchell’s personality and characteristics as a senator; Senators Baker and Dole in comparison to Mitchell; Tom Foley, Barber Conable, and Bob Michel as Frenzel’s role models in the House of Representatives; changes in relationships between congressional members, partisanship, and the effect on Congress; Frenzel’s decision to retire from the House; term limits; Frenzel’s hopes and fears in terms of the U.S. budget; the Reagan deficit; Gramm-Rudman Act; Republicans in Congress and President Clinton; GATT; free trade, NAFTA, and how some states’ concerns, like Maine’s, are involved; the filibuster; how Frenzel relates to other legislators like George Mitchell as a Republican to a Democrat; and the two parties in the U.S. today.
Date: 2009-09-22
Creator: Robert 'Bob' J Dole
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Robert J. “Bob” Dole was born July 22, 1923, in Russell, Kansas, and attended the University of Kansas. He served with distinction in World War II, and after the war earned his law degree at Washburn School of Law. He was elected as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1961, serving until 1969, when he ran for the U.S. Senate. He won and held that seat until 1996, when he became the Republican Party’s 1996 presidential nominee. He was on the Finance Committee and was minority leader when George Mitchell was majority leader; in 1994 he became Senate majority leader. At the time of this interview, he served as special counsel in the law firm Alston & Bird.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: relationship with Senator Mitchell; when Mitchell emerged as a potential leader; comparison of working with Mitchell and Byrd; Mitchell’s partisanship; relationship with Mitchell when Bill Clinton succeeded George Bush; health care reform; Dole’s meetings with George Mitchell; Dole’s and Mitchell’s working together to pass the ADA bill; reaction when Mitchell announced his retirement; Mitchell’s legacy; working at Verner Liipfert law firm with Mitchell; working on a bipartisan nonprofit healthcare effort with Mitchell (Bipartisan Policy Center); and George Mitchell’s legacy.
Date: 2008-08-19
Creator: James 'Jim' W Case
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
James W. “Jim” Case was born on June 21, 1945, in Chicopee, Massachusetts. His father was a firefighter and his mother was a homemaker who raised seven children; Jim was the fourth of five boys. His family was Irish-German Catholic, and his parents were involved in local politics. He grew up in a blue-collar mill town with a good public educational system; he attended Clark University, where he majored in psychology. He was drafted in November 1968 at the height of the Vietnam War and served two years as an administrator in a physical therapy clinic at an Army hospital. Subsequently, he attended the University of Maine School of Law, became active in politics as co-chair of the local Kennedy campaign committee, and developed an interest in labor law. He also worked on George Mitchell’s gubernatorial campaign in 1974. After law school he went to Washington, DC to work in Senator Muskie’s office, first as assistant counsel to the Committee on Environment and Public Works, which involved economic development and environmental policy, and later as legislative director. He was Senator Mitchell’s first administrative assistant, a post he held until 1981. At the time of this interview he was a partner in the McTeague, Higbee, Case, Cohen, Whitney & Toker law firm.
Summary
Interview includes discussions of: 1972 Muskie presidential primary race; 1974 Maine gubernatorial race; factors that contributed to the results of the 1974 election; Mitchell on the campaign trail; Mitchell’s role in Muskie’s 1976 reelection campaign; how Mitchell came to be appointed U.S. attorney and later a federal judge; the transition in the Senate office when Muskie moved over to the State Department; Mitchell getting committee assignments; issues he worked on in his first year of office; Finance Committee deregulation of the banking industry; Case’s predicting that Mitchell would be Democratic leader; Senate prayer breakfasts; Case’s bringing David Johnson in to replace himself when he left in 1981; Mitchell’s accessibility to Mainers and commitment to Maine; and the mutual loyalty between Senator Mitchell and his staff.
Date: 2008-05-14
Creator: Laurence 'Larry' E Pope
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Laurence E. “Larry” Pope was born on September 24, 1945, in New Haven, Connecticut, and grew up in Braintree, Massachusetts. He attended Bowdoin College; upon graduating in 1967, he entered the Peace Corps and then the foreign service in 1969. He spent thirty-one years as a diplomat, serving as ambassador to Chad and as a political advisor to General Tony Zinni. He was the original staff director for the Sharm el-Sheikh International Fact-Finding Committee chaired by Senator George J. Mitchell.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: Braintree, Massachusetts, during the 1950s; interest in the Foreign Service; Bowdoin College; events surrounding the Iraq Liberation Act and Pope’s nomination to become ambassador to Kuwait; the Sharm el-Sheikh International Fact-Finding Committee; the fact-finding process with Israelis and Palestinians; Pope’s resignation from the commission; selecting Fred Hof as deputy staff director and later director; Senator Warren Rudman; and appointment of Khai Eide as Czar of International Reconstruction Efforts in Afghanistan.
Date: 2009-07-26
Creator: Gerald 'Gerry' F Petruccelli
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Gerald F. Petruccelli was born on February 24, 1943, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Mary Rita (Madden) and Gerald F. Petruccelli, Sr. Gerry went to Archbishop Williams in Quincy, Massachusetts, and then to Boston College. He attended law school at the University of Toledo and then the University of Maine, receiving his degree from Boston College, where he was involved in Boston College’s Law Review. He served as professor of law at the University of Maine Law School from 1968-1975, lecturer from 1975-1979, and adjunct professor from 1979 to the the time of this interview. In 1971 he was a special assistant attorney general in Maine, and from 1973 to 1980 he practiced law at Preti Flaherty. Since 1980, Petruccelli has worked for Petruccelli, Martin, and Haddow, LLP in Portland, Maine.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: childhood and educational background; background in politics; description of Boston College Law School Dean Bob Dryden; becoming a member of the faculty at the University of Maine Law School; the change in Uniform Commercial Code; how Petruccelli met George Mitchell through Joe Brennan; working for Mitchell as a lawyer; the Muskie reelection in 1970; working at the district attorney’s office with Mitchell when Joe Brennan was elected; interaction with Mitchell in the Democratic primary election of 1974; working on a major marijuana importation case with Mitchell as U.S. attorney; and meeting with managers of TV stations on behalf of Mitchell in the 1982 campaign.
Date: 2009-07-10
Creator: L. Joe Wishcamper
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Lyndel “Joe” Wishcamper was born August 18, 1942, in Amarillo, Texas, to Joe Henry Wishcamper and Mildred Louise (Pierce) Wishcamper. He attended Yale University and later earned his law degree at Harvard Law School. He practiced law in New York, then transitioned to the investment and real estate businesses. He worked with Max Cardmen, who was instrumental in creating 221.B.3, one of the first government subsidized housing projects; during the Nixon era, this project morphed to become the Section 8 program in 1974. Wishcamper was involved in George Mitchell’s 1982 U.S. Senate campaign. He was involved in the Section 8 program in Portland, Maine, renovating many buildings to be used as subsidized housing, in part working with the Tax Reform of 1986. At the time of this interview, he was president of Wishcamper Industries, which is based in Maine.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: family and educational background; Wishcamper’s legal career; 221.B.3 housing project; Section 8 housing; Nixon administration; playing tennis with the Senator; Mitchell’s U.S. Senate appointment (1980); U.S. Senate campaign (1982); Mitchell’s role in the low income housing tax credit; Tax Reform of 1986; and entrepreneurship in Maine.
Date: 2009-04-09
Creator: Paul Orloff, Germaine A Orloff
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Paul Orloff was born in Waterville, Maine, on June 30, 1931. He is first-generation American, the son of two immigrants from Belarus, and one of two children. He met the Mitchell family at a young age because Mrs. Mitchell and his father would commute together to the woolen mill in Waterville. Consequently, he spent much of his time in the Mitchell home growing up, eventually becoming best friends with Robbie Mitchell, George’s brother. He attended Michigan State University, keeping in contact with Germaine, whom he was then dating, by letters. He served on the Waterville School Board for eight years. Germaine Alice (Michaud) Orloff was born in Waterville, Maine, in 1933. The daughter of a Canadian immigrant, she grew up in the French section of Waterville, one of six children. She attended Colby College, living at home while commuting to campus. She served on the city council in Waterville for six years, running on the Democratic ticket.
Summary
This interview includes discussion of: growing up in Waterville, Maine, in the mid-twentieth century; immigrant cultures in Maine; lower middle class experience in Waterville; the Mitchell family; Robbie Mitchell’s personality; Hollingsworth & Whitney; George Mitchell as a young man; George Mitchell’s dating; Bowdoin and Colby Colleges; participation in the Democratic Party; the Orloff family; activities at the Boys and Girls Club; memories about various members of the Mitchell family; tennis; growing up as first generation Americans; George Mitchell’s current activities; and local political activity.
Date: 2009-06-26
Creator: H. 'Tim' Timothy O'Neil
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Hugh Timothy “Tim” O’Neil was born in Geneva, New York, on June 13, 1935, to Mary Ann (Perrella) and Hugh Joseph O’Neil. He grew up in Binghamton, New York, and attended Colgate University. He married while he was a student there and graduated with a major in sociology. He spent nine years working in sales for Goodyear, then moved to Maine where he worked for Noyes Tire for nineteen years. He later worked for Portland Glass, becoming the company’s president. He first met George Mitchell as a litigator on the other side of a case involving Portland Glass, and through some mutual friends they became frequent tennis partners. O’Neil has four children and lived in Scarborough, Maine, at the time of this interview.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: family and educational background; O’Neil’s connection to Harvey Picker; working for Goodyear; moving to Nashua, New Hampshire; how O’Neil came to work for Portland Glass; meeting George Mitchell; Mitchell as a lawyer and a tennis player; an anecdote about Mitchell’s helping O’Neil’s daughter get her divorce finalized; Mitchell’s dislike of partisanship; talking to Mitchell during the 1982 campaign and his first TV ads; visiting Mitchell in D.C. and Naples, Florida, to play tennis; Mitchell’s current position as special envoy to the Middle East peace process; the respect that people have for Mitchell; Mitchell as a businessman; Mitchell’s not being a good handyman; and O’Neil’s current business.
Date: 2009-04-20
Creator: Thomas 'Tom' A Daschle
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Thomas Andrew Daschle was born on December 9, 1947, in Aberdeen, South Dakota, to Elizabeth B. Meier and Sebastian C. Daschle. He attended South Dakota State University, being graduated with a degree in political science in 1969. After college he served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force. He started in politics as a staff member to South Dakota Senator James Abourezk. In 1978, Daschle was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served for four terms there. In 1986, he ran for the U.S. Senate and won, serving until he lost the seat in the fall 2004 elections; he succeeded George Mitchell as Senate majority leader in the Senate in 1995. He served as a key advisor to Barack Obama in his presidential campaign of 2008 and was nominated to be the secretary of health and human services; his nomination proved controversial, and he withdrew his name from consideration. He has been heavily involved in working for health care reform. At the time of this interview, he served as a policy advisor at the firm Alston & Bird and was a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: becoming acquainted with Mitchell; making the move to the Senate from the House; Mitchell’s role as chairman of the 1986 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee; the Senate class of 1986; the Democratic trend in the 1986 elections; working in the Senate compared to working in the House; the similarities between Daschle and Mitchell and the foundation of their friendship; Daschle’s role as co-chair of the Policy Committee; the Policy Committee’s functions and Mitchell’s role in expanding its responsibilities; Mitchell’s interest in baseball; Daschle’s campaign and election to majority leader; the procedure of the Senate leader election; Mitchell’s advice to Daschle as his successor as majority leader and his help in making the transition; Daschle’s surprise at Mitchell’s retirement decision; the 1994 elections; the check scandal that involved the House bank; Byrd’s decision to move from majority leader to chair of the Appropriations Committee; how Mitchell ought to be remembered; the Bipartisan Policy Center; thoughts on how Mitchell would have been as a presidential candidate; and Mitchell’s and Daschle’s mutual interest in hearing and telling funny stories.